A country hit by war must now also face a deadly disease.
With more than 20 million people reliant on aid, Yemen was already the world’s single largest humanitarian crisis before it fell victim to a deadly cholera outbreak that has now claimed some 2,000 lives.
AIn Sabeein hospital in Sana’a, Yemen, a father and a mother worry as their son shows more and more symptoms of cholera. Ralph el Hage/ICRC
War in Yemen has forced many, such as this 55-year-old fisherman, into abject poverty. “This shirt I am wearing, I picked it up from the sea,” he says. Ralph el Hage/ICRC
The combination of extreme deprivation, malnutrition, lack of clean water, inadequate sanitation and no garbage disposal (such as that seen in the city of Taiz) are some of the drivers. Ali al Kawkabani/ICRC
ICRC engineers work with the staff from local water boards to keep the water flowing. Khalid al-Saeed
The Yemen Red Crescent Society, meanwhile, works on a number of fronts to prevent and respond to cholera. Below, ICRC staff and Yemen Red Crescent volunteers take part in a cleaning campaign to combat cholera inside a detention centre. Fareed al-Homaid/ICRC.
In places where conflict or crisis means basic services are scarce, the use of data is saving lives. But protecting people’s physical well-being, experts say, is also about protecting their digital profile in cyberspace.
As a biologist who responds to emergencies for the Spanish Red Cross, Eva Turró has found her place in the humanitarian world, raising awareness about the life-saving link between health and hygiene in the wake of calamity.
As humanitarian groups have rushed to embrace new technologies, biometric data such as eye, finger and palm scans have become a common method for humanitarian organizations to track aid during emergencies. But is the humanitarian sector fully ready to protect this most personal form of data?
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