UN warns of an unstoppable epidemic in Yemen

SANAA, July 30 (YPA) – The United Nations commented on the targeting of water and sanitation facilities in Yemen by Saudi-led coalition warplanes.

“For weeks, we’ve been doing everything possible to help hundreds of thousands of people living in and near Hodeidah”, however, “these airstrikes are putting innocent civilians at extreme risk,” the UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen Lise Grande said in a statement obtained by Yemen Press Agency.

Over the past three days, the Saudi-led airstrikes on  Hodeidah hit and damaged a sanitation facility and water station in the Zabidneighbourhoodd, she said, adding that water station “supplies the majority of the water” to the whole city.

“Since the start of the recent military offensive,” said Ms. Grande, “humanitarian partners have been providing food, water, emergency kits, cash and healthcare.”

She indicated that 80 per cent of those displaced by fighting had received some form of help.

As one of the epicentres of the large cholera outbreak which began last year across Yemen, she said that the deadly water-bourne disease “is already present in neighbourhoods across the city and governorate, stressing damage to sanitation, water and health facilities jeopardizes everything that we are trying to do.

She added that ” we could be one airstrike away from an unstoppable epidemic.”

E.M