Local Editor

The United Nations’ World Health Organization [WHO] said on Tuesday that ongoing violence and insecurity continues to limit the delivery of aid in Taiz governorate in Yemen, "where more than 3.3 million people, including 300 585 internally displaced persons, are in critical need of health assistance".

"The situation in Taiz is alarming", WHO Representative in Yemen, Dr Ahmed Shadoul, said. "Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians need life-saving medicines and health services, food, safe water and fuel. Humanitarian and health needs are increasing and the limited response we have been able to provide is not enough."

"There is so much more we can do for the people of Taiz, but we need unrestricted access so that we can reach more people, and additional funding to allow us to scale up our response", he said. 

"Unless we are able to overcome these two challenges, more innocent lives are at risk", he added.

Shadoul also called on parties to the conflict to allow delivering aid into Taiz, and for the international donor community to support their work, adding that, "We urgently need US$ 60 million to continue our life-saving response operations across the country until the end of this year". 

The ’civilian’ death toll in Yemen has risen to more than 2,300 with more than 4,000 other civilians wounded in the fighting in the country that has raged for more than a year now, according to the UN recently this month [September]. Yet, other organizations put the death toll at much higher.

Shortages of fuel and medicines have forced most health units in the villages to shut down, while some hospitals across the governorate have closed their intensive care units. Patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, kidney disease and cancer are unable to access life-saving essential medicines and dialysis centers due to limited access of health facilities and reduced functionality of others.

Shortages in food have led to a significant increase in prices, with many people now unable to afford basic food items, resulting in increased risk of malnutrition, especially in children. The main water wells providing safe drinking have shut down due to interruptions in power supply and lack of fuel for generators.

In response, WHO has provided 30 metric tons of medicines and medical supplies to Taiz governorate, sufficient for 600 000 beneficiaries.

Almost one million liters of water are being distributed to Taiz City by WHO, and water quality monitoring is being conducted to reduce the risk of water-borne diseases.