World must act to pull Yemen out of health crisis

There’s no time to waste for the global community as Yemen faces its worst humanitarian crisis in recent memory. With the breakdown in the healthcare system following two years of war, the impoverished country is struggling to get back on its feet. Water and electricity supplies have been disrupted in the Houthi-controlled north of the country, including the capital Sanaa. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are waging a battle to oust the rebels from their positions. The task is complicated because the Iran-backed Houthis use humans as shields. As if war hadn’t caused enough destruction, Yemen is now confronting a killer of a different kind — cholera. There’s no clean water to drink as pipelines have been destroyed in the fighting. What’s left is bacteria-infested water. Gulf countries are doing their best to put the country’s failing infrastructure up and running, but the Houthis don’t seem to care as cholera spreads by the day, claiming more lives — 5,000 cases are being reported every day. At last count, 1,300 people have died from the outbreak and 200,000 are affected, and the United Nations has called the latest health emergency the “worst cholera outbreak in the world in our lifetime”.

Preventing cholera is simple in an ideal situation. It starts with washing hands with clean water, drinking clean water and eating food that has been cooked and boiled. Trouble is Yemenis don’t have access to clean food and water. In fact, they are thirsty and starving. Rubbish has been piling up on the country’s streets since April. The nation is a hotbed of disease and there’s no one to clean the trash because municipal workers have not been paid for months. How do we end this tragedy? A UN-mediated ceasefire should be enforced to allow clean food and water supplies to enter the worst hit areas of the country. But the Houthis have broken truces in the past; the challenge is to hold them to account and end this mass crime against the Yemenis. The south of the country is with the Arab coalition who are best placed to help deliver aid with UN agencies. Saudi Arabia has already donated $66.7 million for the anti-cholera fight. Other countries should follow suit. Our collective conscience can save Yemen.