Health care system collapses as COVID-19 races across Yemen

“I think we’re only starting to see the tip of the iceberg in Yemen,” Sultana Begum, advocacy manager for Yemen at the Norwegian Refugee Council, told Al-Monitor earlier this month. “For us, it’s been really a race against time in order to be able to prepare as much as we can for this pandemic.”

In Aden, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) runs the only dedicated COVID-19 center in southern Yemen. The organization reported this week that patients are arriving already showing symptoms of acute respiratory distress syndrome, suggesting many more people are sick at home. 

“People are coming to us too late to save,” Caroline Seguin, MSF’s operations manager for Yemen, said in a statement. “We know that many more people are not coming at all: they are just dying at home. It is a heart-breaking situation.”

The United Nations says it needs roughly $2 billion to cover essential services in Yemen from June through December. Without urgent funding, Yemenis will lose access to life-saving assistance as agencies are forced to scale back aid operations. 

The cash-strapped World Food Programme has already reduced the frequency of deliveries to Houthi-held north. Families accustomed to receiving aid monthly now receive food assistance every other month.

Last Friday, The UN’s Population Fund (UNFPA), which assists pregnant women and victims of domestic and sexual violence in Yemen, ended its services at 140 health facilities across the country. The move, prompted by a $59 million funding shortage, leaves 320,000 pregnant women without specialized care and 48,000 at risk of dying from complications in childbirth this year.  

UNFPA, WFP and other UN agencies are hoping at least some of the funding will materialize at a virtual donor conference scheduled for June 2.