Over 1Mln Minors Malnourished in Parts of Yemen Hit by Cholera

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — More than 1 million of children live in the areas of Yemen that have been affected by cholera, the international charity Save the Children said in a Wednesday statement.

"The charity’s new analysis of district level data reveals more than 1,000,000 acutely malnourished children under the age of 5 – including almost 200,000 with severe acute malnutrition – are living in areas with high levels of infection," the statement said citing data from the Yemen Nutrition Cluster.

The statement added that the malnourished children had weak immune systems and "at least three times more likely to die" in case of cholera.

For several years, Yemen has been hit by a violent conflict between the government and the Houthi Shia movement backed by the army units loyal to former country's President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Since March 2015 the Saudi-led coalition has been carrying airstrikes against the Houthis. The hostilities have triggered the humanitarian crisis in the country.

The cholera outbreak in Yemen was announced by the country's health authorities on October 6, 2016. In July, the World Health Organization announced that Yemen was facing the most serious outbreak of cholera in the world with thousands getting ill on a daily basis