In Yemen, the United Nations is reversing plans to begin a cholera vaccination program because the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led bombing campaign has devastated the country’s health system and made it too dangerous for medical workers to carry out their mission. The disclosure came as the number of cholera cases in Yemen topped 313,000, with more than 1,700 deaths from the water-borne disease. At the U.N. Security Council Wednesday, top U.N. officials blasted Saudi Arabia and its allies for Yemen’s humanitarian catastrophe. This is U.N. aid chief Stephen O’Brien.

Stephen O’Brien: “Seven million people, including 2.3 million malnourished children, of whom 500,000 are severely malnourished, under the age of five, are on the cusp of famine, vulnerable to disease and ultimately at risk of a slow and painful death. … Mr. President, this cholera scandal is entirely man-made by the conflicting parties and those beyond Yemen’s borders who are leading, supplying, fighting and perpetuating the fear and the fighting.”