UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Fighting has cut off all roads into Yemen's Taiz city, prompting the UN relief chief to call for urgent aid access, UN humanitarians said on Monday.
"Health services in the city are failing under the strain of lack of supplies and access to the city," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. "Nearly a quarter of a million people have lost access to essential health care, including more than 186,000 children under the age of 5 and 23,000 pregnant women."
Additionally, OCHA said 12 hospitals are at risk of closing or have had to reduce services because of a lack of fuel and critical supplies. More than 1,400 cases of acute diarrhea and suspected cholera were reported in a single week.
Tom Fletcher, UN emergency relief coordinator, spoke with Yemeni Foreign Minister Afrah Abdulaziz Saleh Alzouba about the growing humanitarian crisis, discussing the displacement of civilians in Taiz, rising humanitarian needs and the urgent need for humanitarian access so partners can deliver aid, said OCHA.
The office said that since the beginning of August, when the latest fighting erupted anew, nearly 300,000 people have been forced from their homes, in a country where 5.2 million out of 35 million people had been displaced before the latest escalation.
Humanitarian partners are scaling up wherever they can reach people. They have now provided more than 254,000 displaced people with food, hygiene supplies and emergency cash assistance, said OCHA.
The office said it is coordinating with its health partners on a 90-day emergency plan to keep life-saving services running, restore disrupted care and strengthen disease surveillance.
The UN Human Rights Office said it has verified 272 civilian casualties since the beginning of August -- 68 killed and 204 injured. Children account for 40 percent of these casualties.
The UN reiterated its call on all parties to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, respect international humanitarian law, and allow safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access, including passage into Taiz, OCHA said. ■
