A million cholera cases in Yemen by year-end, says Red Cross
GENEVA: The humanitarian situation in Yemen is a “catastrophe” and cholera cases there could reach a million by year-end, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said yesterday.
Alexandre Faite, head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen, said the warring sides were using disproportionate force, causing “very excessive” civilian casualties. He called on them to allow Sanaa Airport to open to commercial flights for aid supplies.
Faite, saying there had been 750,000 suspected cases of cholera to date, with 2,119 deaths, told a Geneva news briefing: “We could be up to one million (cases) by the end of the year.”
Meanwhile, the Netherlands, seeking to win Saudi Arabia’s agreement to a United Nations investigation into alleged war crimes in Yemen, revised a proposed resolution late on Thursday, the eve of a crucial vote that would determine if there was tough outside scrutiny of Yemen’s war.
The Dutch revision submitted to the UN Human Rights Council, circulated just in time for debate yesterday morning, called for an “international eminent group of experts” to carry out an inquiry.
The earlier version had asked for an “international commission of inquiry”, the gold standard for UN human rights investigations since a landmark report by a UN commission of inquiry into North Korea in 2014.
It was not immediately clear if the call for an eminent group of experts would be accepted by Saudi Arabia, which had in previous years convinced the UN Human Rights Council that an internal Yemeni investigation was more appropriate.
Saudi Arabia and its allies have been bombing the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen since the Houthis seized much of the country’s north in 2015.
UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein has pleaded with the council’s 47 member countries to launch an independent investigation into the war, which has killed thousands, ruined the economy and pushed millions to the brink of famine.
Riyadh says the coalition is fighting terrorists and supporting Yemen’s legitimate government, but Zeid’s office has said Saudi-led airstrikes cause the majority of civilian casualties.
A panel set up by the Saudi-led coalition to investigate civilian casualties found its airstrikes were largely justified. Agencies