Yemen: MSF assists victims of new wave of warfare

In the north of Yemen, a ‘sixth war’ between the army and the Al Houthi rebels began on Tuesday, 11 August. Once again, people face violence and are deprived of health care. Our teams are caring for the wounded and attempting to bring assistance to the displaced as much as security conditions allow.

NEWS | 18 August 2009

Following clashes over recent weeks, the conflict between the Yemeni government forces and the Al Houthi rebels is intensifying. The ‘sixth war’ in five years in the governorate of Saada involves the use of heavy weapons and aerial bombardments.

Thousands have fled the fighting and are displaced in the northern part of Saada as well as in the governorates of Hajja, Amran and Al-Jawf. Our teams have evaluated the needs in the villages of Baqim and Yesnem, in the north of Saada, and are now organizing medical aid for the roughly 30,000 people who have sought refuge there.

The difficulties of travelling the main roads hinder our access to the people in need, and make it difficult for the injured to reach healthcare centres. In addition, we have had to temporarily suspend the mobile assistance which we developed in July in ten health centres in Saada.

The transport of medical materials is also becoming uncertain and makes us fear for stock interruptions in outlying health centres. Upon request from both parties at war, MSF has donated ten medical kits containing medical and surgical materials to local health care providers.

The fighting does not spare the health structures and poses a threat for patients and staff. MSF maintains contact with all parties in the conflict – to insist on the need for patients to be able to access health structures and to assure the safety of emergency personnel.

In spite of the extremely delicate security situation, the MSF medical teams continue to work alongside the Ministry of Health in two rural hospitals in Razeh and Al-Talh. In the latter facility, 63 people were admitted for emergency medical care, including 36 war wounded, since August 11th. Of these, 33 needed surgery.

Between January and July, our teams have performed 30,000 consultations in Saada governorate; they included 8,000 emergency interventions and 1,450 hospitalizations. MSF has performed 720 surgeries, some 100 of them relating to war injuries.