Yemen rebels declare state of emergency over cholera outbreak

Rebel authorities in Yemen’s capital have sounded the alarm over a spreading cholera outbreak that has killed dozens in the war-torn country, calling for urgent international assistance.The International Committee of the Red Cross yesterday said 184 people had died of cholera since April 27, with another 11,000 suspected cases diagnosed across the country.This is the second outbreak of the disease in less than a year in Yemen, where less than half of the country’s medical facilities are functional two years into a war between Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and the coalition-supported government.The Houthi-run health ministry on Sunday warned it was “unable to contain this disaster” in a statement on the rebels’ Saba news agency.It launched an appeal for help from international humanitarian organisations to deal with the crisis.Hafid bin Salem Mohamed, the rebel health minister, said the “scale of the disease is beyond the capacity” of his department, in a statement on Houthi-run Al-Masira television.The state of emergency is an “indication of how serious this crisis is”, United Nations humanitarian co-ordinator in Yemen Jamie McGoldrick told reporters yesterday.“This rapid outbreak of cholera is just another dire manifestation of the humanitarian catastrophe that faces this country,” he said.“These numbers will increase in the weeks and months ahead,” McGoldrick warned.France said yesterday it was “preoccupied by the rapid spread” of cholera, pledging 2mn euros ($2.2mn) to support programmes “responding to the extremely urgent needs” in Yemen, mainly in the health sector. “It is more than ever urgent to find a political solution in Yemen, the only way possible to end the suffering of the population,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement.International relief agencies on Sunday warned of a catastrophic humanitarian situation and urged citizens to exercise hygiene precautions.Dominik Stillhart, the director of operations at the ICRC, said Yemen was “facing a serious outbreak of cholera”.