Press TV- The United Nations (UN)�s aid chief says the humanitarian situation in Yemen, which has been under a Saudi-led war for two and a half years, is �shocking.�

Wrapping up a five-day visit to Yemen, Mark Lowcock, the UN�s head of humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, said in the Yemeni capital, Sana�a, on Saturday that the war had to end through a political process.

�I came to Yemen to better understand the deteriorating humanitarian crisis, including the fastest-growing cholera epidemic the world has ever seen, the world�s largest food insecurity and conditions of widespread population displacement,� Lowcock said. �It�s been shocking to see the terrible impact of this man-made conflict.�

�The UN calls on all parties... to uphold the highest standards of international humanitarian law and respect human rights with respect to everyone, including detainees and journalists,� he added.

Leading a number of its allies, Saudi Arabia started the war on Yemen in March 2015 to restore a former Riyadh-allied government.


[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="555"] A Yemeni man covered in bloodstains reacts during a search for survivors in the debris of buildings hit in a Saudi-led airstrike in the residential southern Faj Attan District of the capital, Sana�a, on August 25, 2017. (Photo by AFP)[/caption]
More than 12,000 people have died since the military aggression began. The invasion has also rendered much of Yemen�s health infrastructure destroyed, making it especially vulnerable to a cholera epidemic that struck the country in April. The disease has so far claimed 2,000 lives.

The Saudi-led coalition has also imposed an all-out blockade over Yemen, despite its dire need for humanitarian assistance.

The UN has described the situation in Yemen as the world�s worst humanitarian crisis.