Nearly 2,000 people have died in Yemen's cholera outbreak

Yemen's cholera epidemic has killed 1,992 people, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Saturday, with north-western province of Hajjah and the Red Sea port city of Hodeida being particulary hit-hard by the waterborne disease.

It added that 419,804 suspected cases of the intestinal disease have been reported since April 27, saying that the rate of infections has been "increasing at an average of 5,000 a day".

The outbreak of the disease has plunged Yemen - which had already been devastated by an ongoing war - into further turmoil. 

Jamie McGoldrick, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said that Yemen's cholera epidemic is "entirely man-made as a result of the conflict".

Since March 2015, a Saudi-led military coalition has led airstrikes in Yemen against Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Riyadh, which has been accused of war crimes in the intervention, has been frustrated into a stalemate in its effort to restore the authority of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

The war has brought Yemen to the brink of collapse, with two-thirds of the country's population of 19 million now living in need humanitarian aid. 

Less than  45 percent of the country's hospitals are operational,with those still in use suffering from huge shortages in power, staff and medication.

Sieges and blockades by both sides in the conflict have exacerbated the humanitarian situation, with rights groups accusing all sides of human rights violations.