Geneva - U.N. humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien described the cholera outbreak in Yemen, which is fast approaching 300,000 cases, as a "man-made catastrophe" caused by the warring sides in the country's civil war and their international backers. The number of suspected cases of the disease, which is caused by ingesting bacteria from water or food contaminated with faeces, reached 179,548 by 20 June, with 1,205 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. "This is because of conflict, it's man-made, it's very severe, the numbers are absolutely staggering, it's getting worse, and the cholera element in addition to the lack of food, the lack of medical supplies, primarily one has to put that at the door of all the parties to the conflict," O'Brien said. "Be that the parties on the ground or their proxies, they all have to recognise that there is a shared responsibility for causing a man-made humanitarian catastrophe, which is where we are in Yemen at the moment."
