UN: Yemen Situation Like Apocalypse

People in war-torn Yemen are facing a situation that “looks like the apocalypse”, the UN’s humanitarian chief has told Al Jazeera, warning that the country  could become the worst humanitarian disaster in half a century. The Arab world’s poorest country has endured nearly three years of war between Houthi fighterss and US-backed Saudi-led forces loyal to fugitive president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The conflict is having a devastating effect, causing widespread food shortages and a major cholera outbreak as well as leaving millions in need of humanitarian assistance. “The situation in Yemen—today, right now, to the population of the country—looks like the apocalypse,” Mark Lowcock, the UN’s undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said on Friday. “The cholera outbreak is probably the worst the world has ever seen with a million suspected cases up to the end of 2017.” Lowcock said “a terrible new epidemic” of diphtheria, a bacterial disease which should be completely preventable by immunization, has already “affected up to 500 people with dozens and dozens of deaths” in the past few weeks “That is going to spread like wildfire,” he added.