One million suspected cholera cases in Yemen, Red Cross says
A Yemeni child suspected of being infected with cholera receives treatment at a makeshift hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, June 5, 2017. (AFP Photo)


The number of suspected cholera cases in Yemen has hit 1 million with more than 80 percent of the population lacking food, fuel, clean water and access to healthcare in the country's civil war, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday.

Yemen, one of the Arab world's poorest countries, is in a proxy war between the Iran-allied Houthi armed movement and a U.S.-backed military coalition headed by Saudi Arabia.

With a shattered healthcare system, Yemen is not able to cope with a major cholera outbreak that is now killing more people than the country's ongoing war. The cholera outbreak has wiped out the wreckage of what once the Yemeni healthcare system.

More than 2,000 people have died of cholera in Yemen this year, adding to the 8,600 who have died in the conflict between the Saudi-backed government and rebels since 2015.

The United Nations says the country is suffering the world's worst humanitarian crisis.