Cholera death toll in Yemen rises to 923: WHO

By Mohamed al-Samei

MARIB, Yemen (AA) – A cholera epidemic has killed at least 923 in war-torn Yemen since late April, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

In a Twitter post on Monday, WHO's Yemen office said over 124,000 suspected cases of cholera have been registered across the country since April 27.

The number of suspected cholera cases has increased by 7,000 since Sunday.

The UN agency earlier warned that the two-year long fighting in Yemen had destroyed the country's health sector, making it difficult to deal with the epidemic.

Impoverished Yemen has remained in a state of civil war since 2014, when Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive air campaign aimed at reversing Houthi military gains and shoring up Yemen’s embattled government.

According to UN officials, more than 10,000 people have been killed in the war, while more than 11 percent of the country’s population has been displaced as a direct result of the conflict.