The death toll from a cholera outbreak is approaching 1,000 in Yemen, a war-devastated and impoverished country where “humanity is losing out to politics”, a senior UN official has said.

“Time is running out to save people who are being killed or being starved and now you have cholera as well adding to that complication,” said Jamie McGoldrick, UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen. “We are struggling because of the lack of resources. We need some action immediately,” he said at a press briefing in the Jordanian capital.

Mr. McGoldrick gave updated figures of more than 130,000 suspected cases of cholera and over 970 deaths, with women and children accounting for half of the numbers. “What is heartbreaking in Yemen is that humanity is losing out to the politics.”

He said a $2.1 billion humanitarian response plan for Yemen for 2017 had only been 29% funded. The cholera outbreak on top of famine in Yemen was “an indication to how things are falling apart with only 50% of health services” operational. “We need resources, we need money and we need them now to address the famine and to address the problems of cholera.”

Militants killed

Meanwhile, a Yemeni security official said on Saturday a U.S. drone strike has killed three suspected members of al-Qaeda in the country’s Shabwa province, a jihadist stronghold in the south.

The strike hit a vehicle in Saeed district late Friday killing the driver and both passengers, the official said.

Washington considers al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based branch to be its most dangerous and has conducted a long-running drone war against its leaders.