AKIPRESS.COM - The United Nations has significantly revised the estimated death toll from Yemen's 18-month civil war to up to 10,000 people - a huge increase on the previous estimate of more than 6,000, Al Jazeerareports.

Speaking from the capital Sanaa on Tuesday, Jamie McGoldrick, the UN humanitarian coordinator, said the new figure was based on official information from medical facilities in Yemen.

The number could rise further, McGoldrick said, as some areas had no medical facilities, and people were often buried without any official record being made.

"We know the numbers are much higher but we can't tell you by how much," McGoldrick told reporters

"The figures we have are probably incomplete because we take the numbers from functioning health services, and in some of these areas there are no functioning health services," he added.

"People get killed or die and are actually buried before they are recorded, and we don't have a way of recording that."

Previous estimates cited by officials and aid groups for much of 2016 said the conflict had killed some 6,500 people, half of them civilians.