Suspected cholera cases in Yemen have tripled over the past three weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. Civilians fleeing renewed fighting are ending up in crowded, unsanitary camps, where the disease can spread quickly.
In a report published on Tuesday, the WHO said the escalating combat has driven more than 200,000 people from their homes. Weekly suspected cases rose from 217 in the week of September 6-12 to 647 in the week of September 27 to October 3.
Displaced families face growing disease risk
Annette Heinzelmann, the agency’s emergency director for the region, said families escaping the conflict now face another danger. She described it as a threat from diseases that can be prevented and treated.
Heinzelmann warned that without urgent funding and reliable access to safe water, vaccines and essential health services, outbreaks could spread rapidly through communities that are already vulnerable.
Southwest governorates carry most of the cases
The WHO said Yemen has recorded 8,034 suspected cases and 27 deaths so far this year. A quarter of those cases were reported in the last four weeks alone.
Five governorates in the southwest, Abyan, Lahij, al-Dhalea, Taiz and Aden, account for 92 percent of reported cases. The disease has also reached remote displacement camps in Hadramout, in the east, where medical teams find it particularly hard to reach people.
Long-running outbreaks and a funding shortfall
Cholera has risen and fallen for years as the conflict has dragged on. In 2024, the WHO warned that Yemen faced the “highest burden” of a global cholera outbreak. In 2017, a wave of the disease infected hundreds of thousands of people and killed at least 2,000, according to the agency.
The UN agency said Yemen was already facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises before fighting between the Houthis and the government reignited in July, ending four years of fragile calm. Food insecurity and disease have worsened since then.
Cholera is an acute intestinal infection spread through food and water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, often by faeces. It causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting and muscle cramps, and can be fatal if not treated with oral rehydration or, in more serious cases, antibiotics.
The Geneva-based WHO said it has secured only $3.78m of the $31m needed for its 90-day emergency response in Yemen. The money is meant to expand disease surveillance in displacement sites, deploy rapid response teams, strengthen cholera treatment and improve infection prevention in health facilities.
