Yemen’s authorities are obstructing aid work and exacerbating a deadly cholera outbreak that is spreading across the country, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.
Parties to the conflict, including the Houthis, the Yemeni government, and the Southern Transitional Council (STC), have obstructed aid and access to information and have failed to take adequate preventative measures to mitigate the spread of cholera., according to HRW report.
Houthi security forces also have detained and threatened civil society staff, including humanitarian aid workers, in their recent arrest campaign.
The report added that data collected by aid agencies indicate that between January 1 and July 19 there have been about 95,000 suspected cholera cases, resulting in at least 258 deaths, according to an individual working with the Yemen Health Cluster, a group of aid organizations, authorities, and donors led by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“The obstructions to aid work by Yemen’s authorities, in particular the Houthis, are contributing to the spread of cholera,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “More than 200 people have already died from this preventable disease, and the Houthis’ detention of aid workers poses a serious threat to further limit the presence of lifesaving aid.”
On July 24, Human Rights Watch wrote to the Yemeni Internationally recognized government, the Houthi rebels, and the Southern Transitional Council with requests for further information.
The Yemeni IRG met with Human Rights Watch and explained that many of their constraints in addressing the cholera outbreak were linked with a lack of funding. They also provided information demonstrating the actions they had taken to inform the Yemeni public about the outbreak. The STC responded stating that Human Rights Watch should direct their questions to the Yemeni IRG, though the STC comprises part of it’s eight-member presidential leadership council that replaced former President Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi in 2022. The Houthis did not respond.
According to a doctor working with a humanitarian aid organization in Houthi-controlled territory, though patients began showing signs of cholera starting in November 2023, Houthi authorities refused to acknowledge the crisis to humanitarian agencies until March 18, 2024, when there were already thousands of cases. In March, the Houthis finally began providing information about cholera cases in Houthi-controlled territory, but they still have not announced the outbreak publicly.
While the source of the outbreak is not clear, cholera is endemic to Yemen. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), during the last cholera outbreak in Yemen from 2016 to 2022, Yemen had 2.5 million suspected cases, constituting “the largest ever reported cholera outbreak in recent history,” with over 4,000 deaths.