AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The head of the U.N. child agency says trying to slow the spread of cholera in war-ravaged Yemen is "a race between us, and the rains and the continuing destruction and the fighting."

Anthony Lake, executive director of UNICEF, tells The Associated Press on Thursday that efforts to ramp up the campaign against cholera are hampered by a shortfall in resources.

U.N. officials say about 400,000 cases of suspected cholera and close to 1,900 deaths have been recorded since April.

Yemen's civil war is a proxy conflict between regional powers Saudi Arabia and Iran, with Western involvement.

Lake says ordinary people should demand that their governments put an end to these conflicts and "then meet their responsibility to clean up the human suffering that is caused by these conflicts."