Local Editor
Oxfam said the arrival of the rainy season in Yemen in the coming weeks threatens to provoke a new spike in cholera cases.
It said more than 56,000 people have been infected since the start of this year and more than 2.2 million since 2017.
It is increasingly difficult to help the population due to a war that has been going on for five years and has already registered 12 million civilian victims and more than 100,000 victims overall.
Oxfam said at five years since the start of the most serious humanitarian crisis in the world, as evidenced repeatedly by the United Nations, the international community seems to have forgotten about it.
In a statement, Oxfam said the total number of cases in 2019 was the second-highest increase in infections since the outbreak of the epidemic: more than 860,000 suspected cases with more than 1,000 victims, just under the one million registered in 2017.
"While the health system is near collapse, with only half of the structures operating in the country due to bombings and other clashes in recent years, the number of infections could increase with the arrival of the rainy season in April," said Paolo Pezzati, Oxfam Italia policy advisor for humanitarian emergencies.
"It would be the umpteenth hit for a population that has already suffered unspeakable horrors," he said.
After having registered the highest number of cholera cases in 2017, northern Yemen remains the area at the highest risk due to the nearly complete lack of sources of clean water, above all in the five governorates of Sana'a, Hajjah, Hudaydah, Taiz and Dhamar.
"The people of Yemen once again must face a very difficult challenge, with the rest of the world nearly completely indifferent," Pezzati said. "The lack of water and food exposes the population, above all the poorest and most vulnerable communities, to epidemics such as this one. Ten million people are on the verge of famine, more than 17 million don't have access to clean water and sanitation services."
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
