Dubai: Mark Lowcock, Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, has commended the UAE for its help in combating the outbreak of cholera across Yemen.
Lowcock said the Emirates Red Crescent worked diligently in coordination with the United Nations to ensure that critical aid reached all segments of Yemeni society.
On his part, Yemen’s Health Minister, Nasser Ba’oum, also praised the ERC’s efforts in eradicating cholera.
“Because of its tireless work, we have made strides in limiting the spread of the disease,” he said.
His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announced in July the UAE’s donation of $10 million to the World Health Organisation to support its efforts in combating cholera in Yemen.
Meanwhile, the ERC continues development and rehabilitation projects in liberated areas of the country.
Earlier this week, the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Medecins Sans Frontieres) said it was closing most of its 37 cholera treatment centres in Yemen, saying the epidemic appears to be declining.
Some 884,368 suspected cholera cases have been recorded in the war-torn country in the past six months, including 2,184 deaths, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The case fatality rate is now 0.25 per cent.
Civil war in Yemen has killed more than 10,000 people since it began in March 2015.
Yemen’s war pits the Iran-backed Al Houthi movement that controls the capital against the internationally-recognised government of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition which is trying to restore his rule.
Cholera epidemics usually subside once the disease passes through a population, but aid agencies say the Yemen epidemic lasted longer and spread wider than they initially expected because of the war’s toll on health care.
