Yemen fighting overwhelms hospitals, cuts aid to 800,000 people, relief agencies say

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, Oct 14 (Reuters) – Hospitals across Yemen are struggling to cope with a sharp rise in war casualties, while intensified fighting along multiple front lines has cut off vital aid to around 800,000 people, humanitarian agencies said on Wednesday.

Aid agencies are warning of rapidly worsening conditions in Yemen since war resumed between the Iran-allied Houthis and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government last month, a conflict reignited by the US-Iran confrontation in the Gulf.

In Taiz, a government-held city that was encircled by Houthi fighters earlier this month, wheat flour stocks are nearly exhausted, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday.

Remaining food supplies may not last long if access constraints continue, it said, adding that more than 600,000 people in Taiz depend on aid, including more than 200,000 children.

Medical supplies are also running low.

One hospital in Taiz said it faces severe shortages of dialysis supplies and its stocks would last 14 days. “A shipment from Aden was scheduled, but due to the current situation, we were unable to receive it,” Yussef al-Zakari, head of the kidney center at al-Thawra Hospital, told Reuters.

Kidney patient Maamun Abdulwahad Naaman, who receives dialysis treatment twice a week at the hospital, said he could not return to his village some 15 km (10 miles) from Taiz city due to clashes on the road. “If I stay at home, I cannot return to the kidney hospital (centre), and my condition will deteriorate if I remain there,” he said. 

The WFP said a total of 800,000 people were beyond its reach in Yemen.

“This is the kind of situation that can rapidly spiral into a humanitarian catastrophe if assistance cannot move safely and reach those who need it most,” El-Khidir Daloum, WFP Representative and Country Director in Yemen, said in a statement.

The Red Cross said front-line hospitals in areas including Marib, Taiz and Yemen’s Red Sea coast are seeing unprecedented numbers of weapon-wounded patients, with some facilities admitting more than 700 casualties in a single week. 

More ⁠than 200,000 people have ⁠been displaced from their homes since fighting ​in the country began in recent weeks, according to ‌the United Nations’ International ‌Organization for Migration.

“Trauma care staff are under enormous pressure,” ICRC health coordinator Feras Abusamra said in a statement. Only a small proportion of Yemen’s functioning health facilities are capable of providing comprehensive trauma care, he said, while hospitals face large numbers of wounded people amid shortages of surgical supplies, anesthesia, oxygen and medicines.

Yemen’s health services, battered by more than a decade of conflict, economic crisis, displacement and disease outbreaks, may have limited capacity to absorb a new surge in mass casualties if fighting intensifies further, the ICRC warned.

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Writing by Olivia Le Poidevin and Tom Perry;Editing by Linda Pasquini and Toby Chopra)