New Mideast Crisis: Over 1,100 Yemenis Die of Cholera Outbreak Since Late April

More than a thousand Yemenis have died of cholera since April 2017 amid the ongoing civil war in the country, the World Health Organization (WHO) in Yemen said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — A total of 1,146 Yemenis have become victims of the cholera outbreak in the country since April 27, according to WHO.

"Since 27 April 2017, a total of 166,976 suspected #cholera cases and 1146 deaths have been reported across #Yemen," the WHO wrote on its official Twitter account.

The cholera outbreak in Yemen was announced by the country's health authorities on October 6, 2016. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 7.6 million Yemenis live in areas with a high risk of cholera transmission.

Yemen has been in the grip of a civil war since March 2015, which affected the country’s economic and social systems, as well as the national health care. The war is being waged between the internationally recognized government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Houthi movement backed by army units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) characterizes the situation in Yemen as "the largest humanitarian crisis in the world," with 18.8 million people in need of humanitarian or defense assistance, including 10.3 million who require immediate aid to save or sustain their lives.