Desperate to halt the cholera crisis afflicting Yemen, Unicef has taken the unusual step of paying the country’s doctors and nurses, who have not received salaries in months.
The regional director for Unicef, Geert Cappelaere, said on Thursday that Yemen’s health workers are crucial to the effort to combat cholera and that they should not be expected to work for free. Mr. Cappelaere said Unicef, the United Nations children’s agency, started paying the health workers about four weeks ago.
Nearly 1,000 Yemenis have died from cholera since the outbreak began in April, half of them women and children, United Nations officials have said. More than 130,000 cases have been reported, and Mr. Cappelaere and others predicted that the total could rise to 300,000 in coming weeks.