Local Editor

Overwhelmed by hundreds of sick and wounded each day, hospitals in Yemen’s second city Aden have been reduced to hospices lacking medicines and space as the country’s bloodshed rages on, according to Agence France-Presse [AFP] on Tuesday. 

Since March, a Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out deadly airstrikes against Yemen. The US-led Saudi military aggression has led to severe shortages of food, water, fuel and electricity. 

"The world is watching us slowly die," said Abdullah Gahtan, a lawyer lying on a bed at Aden’s Al-Sadaka hospital.

Like many others in the war-stricken city, Gahtan is suffering from dengue fever, spreading fast across Aden.

"The doctor prescribed a treatment, but we couldn’t find the medicines."

The World Health Organization [WHO] said recently last month [June] that more than 3,000 dengue cases have been reported in Yemen since March, adding that the actual figure could be far higher.

Medical sources in Aden say the mosquito-borne infectious disease has already killed 260 people in the port city in recent weeks.

Yet, dengue is only one of the many diseases, such as malaria and typhoid, rapidly spreading across the port city due to deteriorating sanitary conditions as the fighting continues. 

The United Nations [UN] has also recently declared its highest level of humanitarian emergency in Yemen, where a Saudi-led Arab coalition has been bombing in the country since March 26.

In addition to some 3,000 Yemenis killed since March, the war has also left 14,000 wounded and displaced more than a million people, according to the UN.

It says 21 million, or 80 percent of Yemen’s population, need immediate help and that close to 13 million people are unable to meet their food needs, while 15 million people have no health care.

But Aden has born the brunt of the war.

• No room -

With little room available, many patients are camped in corridors, some on mattresses on the ground, others slumped on the floor with limbs wrapped in bandages amid children’s cries and screams.

"Many of the patients are unable to go back home because their home has been destroyed.

"So that creates an issue when we have to discharge the patients," said Thierry Goffeau, MSF project coordinator in Aden.

"They don’t know where to go, but we cannot keep them in hospital, so it’s a very difficult situation."

Despite the dangers and a blockade imposed by the Saudi-led coalition, MSF says it has treated more than 4,000 people wounded in seven facilities it runs and has managed to deliver 100 tonnes of supplies.

All public hospitals in Aden face similar problems, from drug shortages to power cuts and a lack of space to admit patients.

According to Mouhib Abbad, a member of a local relief grouping, around 5,000 wounded people need treatment abroad.

"Arab coalition states should take care of this."

The UN Security Council meanwhile has urged world governments to dig deep in their pockets after only 10 percent of the latest UN appeal for Yemen of $1.6 billion was raised.