The conflict in Yemen has become a largely forgotten and neglected humanitarian crisis in which two-thirds of the population – more than 20 million people – are in present need of urgent health assistance. But as this protracted conflict now enters its ninth year, there is renewed hope for eventual peace and health, for all Yemenis.
“Arabia Felix”, or “Happy Yemen” – as this beautiful and once-prospering country was called in ancient Roman times – is deeply suffering and impoverished today.
Since March 2014, long years of conflict have driven Yemen into a dark abyss of human deprivation and despair. Multiple life-threatening health risks, and a severely crippled and overwhelmed health system, have contributed to making Yemen home to one of the world’s most protracted and dire humanitarian crises.
Currently, only 54 percent of health facilities are functioning, while 46 percent are closed or only partially operating. Facilities that are still open are badly overstretched and struggling to provide even most basic services, due to shortages of staff, electricity, medicines, supplies, and equipment. Most health workers are receiving reduced payments if any, compared to previous years – resulting in further deterioration of essential services.
According to the UN’s Yemen Humanitarian Needs Overview 2023 (HNO), severe health risks and limited access to health services pose greatest threats to children and women who are most vulnerable to malnutrition and preventable diseases. At present, some 17.3 million people in Yemen are being driven to the brink of starvation. They include about 1.15 million acutely malnourished children under age five who face a 30–50% risk of death; and an estimated 540,000 children under five who presently suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), with imminent risk of death.
Four different disease outbreaks (measles, diphtheria, pertussis, and poliomyelitis) are also sweeping across Yemen, accelerated by conflict, mass internal displacements, and disruptions of water and sanitation networks. More than 15 million people cannot presently access clean water and sanitation without humanitarian assistance.
Around one in four Yemenis are estimated to be suffering from mental illness and psychosocial problems exacerbated by violence, forced displacements, unemployment, and food shortages. Their health needs are predominantly stigmatized, if ever treated.
Critical health interventions, including community vaccination campaigns, are severely impeded not only by conflict, but also by as widely-circulating and fear-based misinformation that erodes community trust in life-saving vaccines.
“Despite their extreme difficulties and suffering, the Yemeni people remain determined and resilient,” said Dr Adham Abdel Moneim, WHO Representative in Yemen. “But since there is no health without peace, and no peace without health, international solidarity and support are desperately needed in Yemen now. Only when the conflict in Yemen is ended will Yemen’s health system be able to recover and rebuild.”
WHO continues working around the clock with Yemen’s Ministry of Public Health and Population (MoPHP) to shore up fragile health facilities and meet most urgent health needs of at-risk population groups including children under five and pregnant and breastfeeding women who are highly vulnerable to malnutrition and preventable diseases.
Yemen’s largely female health workforce continues to play a central role in enabling WHO’s efforts to support hospitals and health facilities with essential medicines, supplies, equipment, training and many other interventions, within WHO's integrated response to Yemen’s health crisis, together with the MoPHP.
Although other major humanitarian crises have diverted much of the world’s attention from Yemen, recent and positive political dialogues hold new promise for the country. Restoring health and well-being to communities is key to ending Yemen’s unrelenting years of prolonged conflict and widespread human suffering.
Peace is possible in Yemen.
Story: Shatha Al-Eryani and Kevin Cook, WHO-Yemen
Photos: © WHO-Yemen / Omar Nasr