UN aid chief in Yemen warns of cholera rise without more aid

A senior United Nations official says treatable diseases like cholera could ravage Yemen this year without an increase in aid and an end to the two-year-old civil war.

Jamie McGoldrick, the UN humanitarian chief in Yemen, told The Associated Press today that poverty and disease are visibly spreading amid the havoc of war.

McGoldrick spoke in the Jordanian capital of Amman after a recent trip to Yemen. He says that people in Yemen are "dying unnecessary, preventable deaths in quiet corners of villages."

He says the UN's USD 2 billion Yemen aid programme for 2017 is less than 20 per cent funded. He says the runaway poverty and continued fighting ensures the worse is yet to come.

McGoldrick says that "it's going to be a very sad year for Yemen."

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)