People are dying of simple diseases." On 1 July 2015, the UN announced that Yemen was at the highest level of humanitarian disaster with over 80% of the population needing help. UN agencies agreed to classify Yemen as a level 3 emergency as the UN Envoy for Yemen stated that Yemen is one step away from famine. In February 2016, the OCHA reported that 21 million people (85% of the population) were in need of some form of humanitarian assistance, 7.6 million people were "severely" food insecure, and that more than 3.4 million children were not attending school. On 4 October 2016, the UN children's agency UNICEF said 1.5 million children in Yemen suffer of malnutrition, including 370,000 enduring very severe malnutrition. In October 2016, health authorities in Yemen confirmed a cholera outbreak in Sanaa and Taiz. In June 2017, cholera cases passed 100,000 with 798 deaths in the country. The water and sanitation systems are largely inoperable Numerous international humanitarian organisations have pointed to the Saudi-led naval and aerial blockade and bombing campaign as central causes behind the preventable cholera epidemic. More than 50,000 children in Yemen died from starvation in 2017. The number rose to 85,000 as of December 2018. The famine in Yemen is the direct result of the Saudi Arabian-led intervention and blockade of Yemen. In December 2017, the "Guardian" reported: "Data on coalition airstrikes collected by the Yemen Data Project have recorded 356 air raids targeting farms, 174 targeting market places and 61 air raids targeting food storage sites from March 2015 to the end of September 2017." According to the OCHA's March 2019 report, 108,889 suspected cholera and acute watery diarrhea cases were reported between January and mid-March, with one third cases of children below 5 five years. Around 190 people died in the mentioned period. In August 2016, a Joint Incidents Assessment Team was formed by the coalition parties to investigate alleged laws of war violations. But the team failed to meet international standards regarding transparency, impartiality, and independence. It failed to investigate and apply human rights law in the civil war and instead acted as a shield against the parties accountable for the war. In December 2015, David Ottaway, a senior scholar at the Wilson Center in Washington, estimated the Saudi-led military coalition was spending $200 million a day on military operations in Yemen. His sources speculate that the Saudis are supplying most of the funding. Following the call by the leader of the Houthi movement, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, tens of thousands Yemenis of various socioeconomic backgrounds took to the streets of the rebel-controlled capital, Sanaʽa, to voice their anger at the Saudi intervention.