ReliefWeb

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Our colleague, Jamie McGoldrick, the Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, said today that the man-made humanitarian crisis in the country is resulting in famine-like conditions and an unprecedented spread of cholera.

There are more than 140,000 suspected cases, half of them children, and nearly 1,000 associated deaths, all of which he said could have been prevented.

Mr. McGoldrick warned that humanity is losing to politics and called on the parties to the conflict to end tactics which inflict suffering on the Yemeni people and contribute to the collapse of critical services, such as the health sector. More than 1 million civil servants haven't been paid for nearly a year.

Since the beginning of the year, 2 million more people are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection, pushing the total past 20 million.

On average, 4 million people have received food assistance each month since the beginning of the year, but funding is running out. Unless donors provide fresh funds, the food pipeline is at risk of breaking in September and the prospects of famine will be a reality.

Of the $2.1 billion required for the Yemen response plan, it is only 29 per cent funded.