The United Nations’ humanitarian aid official in Yemen said the civilian death toll in the nearly two-year conflict has reached 10,000, with 40,000 others wounded.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ Jamie McGoldrick said the figure is based on lists of victims gathered by health facilities, but the actual number might be higher, Aljazeera reported.
McGoldrick also said that up to 10 million people need “urgent assistance to protect their safety, dignity and basic rights”, according to a separate social media post early on Tuesday.
The announcement marks the first time a UN official has confirmed such a high death toll in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation.
“This once more underscores the need to resolve the situation in Yemen without any further delay,” UN deputy spokesman, Farhan Haq, said in New York.
“There’s been a huge humanitarian cost.”
The Yemen conflict pits Houthi rulers and allied forces against an Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia.
The coalition began an air campaign in March 2015 to restore power to fugitive president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi that fled the country after Houthis seized the capital Sana’a.
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