By Fatih Erel

GENEVA

The number of cases of cholera in war-torn Yemen has passed one million, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

"Today, the number of suspected cholera cases in Yemen since late April 2017 has just passed one million," WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said in a press conference in the UN at Geneva.

Noting that the exact number of cholera cases in the country had reached 1,001,428, Jasarevic said 2,227 cholera-related deaths had been documented in the country.

The cholera epidemic in Yemen is the largest and fastest-spreading outbreak of the disease in modern history.

Yemen has remained dogged by chaos and violence since 2014, when Houthi rebels overran much of the country. The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi gains.

After 1,000 days of conflict, major humanitarian challenges threaten lives in Yemen as the UN migration agency reported on Friday that essential services in the country have collapsed and that about 75 percent of Yemenis need humanitarian assistance.

Noting that famine has spread throughout the country, the International Organization for Migration said an estimated 7.3 million people, including 2.4 million children under five were in need of urgent life-saving food assistance.