At least 959 people have lost their lives and about 4,200 have been injured in Yemen during the last two months of clashes, especially after the escalation last month between the Yemeni government and its Saudi partner against the Houthi insurgency, according to the latest report from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The WHO count includes the victims recorded between August 6 and October 2 of this year. The UN health agency estimates that more than 500 deaths have occurred since the spike in fighting at the beginning of September and that the daily number of casualties, combining dead and injured, has risen from 8 to 109 since the clashes spread to the strategic city of Taiz.
By provinces, Taiz accounts for 47% of the casualties (between dead and injured) detailed; Lahj, 25%; and Marib, 24%. However, it is Marib that registers the highest proportion of fatalities (28%, compared to 17% in Taiz and 6% in Lahj). Almost 200,000 people have been forced to leave their homes, which means 29,519 displaced families in ten governorates, with a particular impact in the province of Lahj, which hosts about two-thirds of these displaced persons.
At the same time, the cholera outbreak has surged in just three weeks. The last four weeks account for 1,892 of the 7,871 cases and 11 of the 27 deaths reported so far this year, with an 89% positive rate in rapid diagnostic tests.
The disease has also reached the camps in the east of the country. The epidemiological surveillance system has confirmed through culture two cases in Al Abr (Hadramut) in the last four weeks, among the 12 suspected cases reported by the Mukalla center. The rapid response team has not yet been able to access the Gharan camp, where two infections were detected.
Military escalation and offensive against the Houthis
Violence has intensified even more after the president of Yemen, Rashad al Alimi, announced this Sunday the start of a major counteroffensive aimed at expelling the Houthi insurgents from the capital, Sana'a, after more than a decade under their control, and defeating the Ansarollah movement, backed by Iran, throughout the territory.
The clashes this Tuesday have concentrated between the western coast and the besieged city of Taiz, specifically in the municipality of Al Waziya and in the port city of Mocha, near the strategic Bab el Mandeb strait.
Although the Yemeni government forces initially proclaimed the success of both operations, especially the offensive on Mocha, the military spokesman for the Houthis, Colonel Yahya Sari, has denied that the Yemeni Army has managed to take control of these fronts.
"Our armed forces, by the grace of God, managed to repel and expel the concentrations of the Saudi enemy during their attempt to advance towards the positions of our forces southwest of Al-Waziya, without making any progress," he stated on social media.
Likewise, Sari has assured that the Houthis have managed to repel "several attempts by the Saudi enemy to advance towards Bab el Mandeb," from which they have "expelled without making any progress."
The Houthi movement has also reported that six members of the same family died and four other people were injured in two bombings in Yemen that the rebel authorities attribute to Saudi Arabia, as announced this Tuesday by their Ministry of Health.
The six fatalities occurred when an airstrike hit the town of Umm al Duhai, in the Haya province, where a father, a mother, and four children are said to have died. A girl was seriously injured and some people were trapped under the rubble, the Ministry added.
A second airstrike hit the Salh district, in the Taiz province, injuring a minor and two adults, according to the same source, which has accused the Saudi forces of a "flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime."