Yemeni activist lauds Iran’s telling Role in countering Cholera

In an interview with Tasnim, Bakil al-Hamini, secretary general of Yemeni Youth for Justice and Development party, said the outbreak of cholera in Yemen and the deaths are a result of perpetuation of Saudi-led military attacks on his country and the continued blockade on the impoverished country.

Highlighting the Yemeni people’s efforts to prevent the spread of the disease, he said the Islamic Republic of Iran has played a significant role in vaccination of Yemenis against cholera and supplying the needed medication.

Hamini further criticized the United Nations for its handling of the epidemic in Yemen, saying the UN disburses only 17 to 20 percent of the international aid money to people of Yemen and holds the rest for its own staffers.

Last week, the UN’s aid coordination agency said there have been 313,000 cases and 1,706 deaths across Yemen’s 22 provinces since the cholera outbreak began in March.



The International Red Cross’s director for the region, Robert Mardini, said that around 7,000 new cases a day were being diagnosed as the disease threatens to completely overwhelm Yemen’s barely functioning medical infrastructure, according to Independent.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh..

Over 12,000 Yemenis, including thousands of women and children, have lost their lives in the deadly military campaign.

Saudi Arabia has also closed down Yemen’s air and seaports preventing the import of food and medicine.

/SR