Alwaght- About 10 million children in Yemen are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, according to UNICEF, as the Arab country suffers unabated Saudi-led bombardments.
In its latest statement posted on its official Facebook page, UNICEF's Yemen office said that most children in Yemen lacked basic medical care, adequate nutrition, fresh drinking water, suitable sanitation and education.
Also on Thursday, UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen Jamie McGoldrick warned of growing risk of famine in the country, saying groups struggle to find funds as they have pulled resources from the campaign against malnutrition to battle the cholera outbreak in the impoverished Muslim nation.
“We are trying to do our best, but it is very much beyond what we can cope with,” McGoldrick said at a news conference in the capital city of Sana’a.
Cholera has swept Yemen with alarming velocity in what the United Nations has described as “the worst cholera outbreak in the world.”
The World Food Programme, meanwhile, says more than 17 million Yemenis do not know where their next meal will come from.
On Wednesday, Stephane Dujarric, the UN spokesman, said the cholera outbreak that started in April has spread to Yemen's all 21 governorates.
There have been 270,000 suspected cases of cholera in Yemen and more than 1,600 deaths from the disease since late April, he said.
He said the World Health Organization and its partners received 400 tons of medical supplies and equipment on Tuesday, including 30 ambulances and kits to treat 10,000 people in Aden and Hodeida.
Dujarric told reporters on Wednesday that WHO's partners will set up 2,350 beds at 600 points throughout Yemen to treat cholera victims with oral rehydration.
Saudi Arabia backed by the US and some despotic regional regimes launched the deadly campaign against Yemen in March 2015 to push back the popular Ansarullah movement from Sana’a and to bring back to power Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, Yemen's president who has resigned and is a staunch ally of Riyadh.
The brutal aggression has so far claimed the lives of over 13,000 Yemenis mostly civilians including women and children.
The Saudi military aggression has also taken a heavy toll on Yemen’s facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, markets schools, mosques and factories.
