EU increases aid against cholera outbreak in Yemen

BRUSSELS, June 23 (KUNA) -- The European Commission announced Friday that it is scaling up its response to an unprecedented cholera outbreak in Yemen with an additional five million euro (USD 5.6 million), bringing total EU support for efforts to tackle the disease to 8.8 million euro (USD 9.8 million).
"The cholera outbreak in Yemen continues to spread dramatically during the last weeks and warrants urgent action. The European Union is stepping up support to allow humanitarian partners to rapidly increase their capacity to treat people and save lives in Yemen," Christos Stylianides, EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, said in a statement. "Crucially, humanitarian organisations must be allowed full access to do their life-saving job. While we do all we can to help those in need, only a political solution will bring this catastrophe to an end," he added.
The disease has rapidly spread to 20 of Yemen's 22 governorates and has killed over 1000 people in the last eight weeks. Suspected cases of cholera increase by the day in the thousands and nearly 170,000 people have been affected so far, he said.
Overall, the European Commission's humanitarian funding for Yemen in 2017 stands at 121.7 million euro (USD 136 million), he noted. (end) nk.hm