WHO Warns of Imminent Health System Collapse and Urgent Need for Humanitarian Aid in Yemen

26-04-2023

Bilge Ece Zeyrek

Middle East and Human Rights Researcher

Global Human Rights Defence

During a UN press briefing on April 21, 2023, Dr. Annette Heinzelmann, who leads the Health Emergencies Team at the WHO office in Yemen, presented an update on the current health situation in Yemen and the needs that must be addressed. The WHO Doctor warned that after nine years of armed conflict, Yemen is confronting a severe humanitarian crisis, with 21.6 out of 31.5 million people in desperate need of protection and humanitarian services. [1] Healthcare assistance is urgently needed for 12.9 million individuals, while 540,000 Yemeni children under the age of five are currently suffering from severe acute malnutrition, placing them at risk of death. [2] Almost half of the health facilities in the country are either partially operational or completely shut down due to shortages of staff, funds, electricity, or medicines. [3] 

Dr. Heinzelmann acknowledged that recent political talks have generated hope for the possibility of a lasting peace in Yemen. However, she warned that ‘The country’s fragile health system is severely overburdened and edging closer to collapse, while international donor funding is insufficient to avert further deterioration of the country’s failing health services’. [4] Over the weekend, starting on Friday, April 14, 2023, a prisoner exchange took place in Yemen. The exchange followed talks between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, and approximately 900 detainees were released as part of the exchange. [5] While there have been positive results from a previous ceasefire and a recent mass prisoner exchange, UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg informed the Security Council on April 17, 2023, that there is still a need for more effort to bring an end to the conflict between the Saudi coalition-backed Government and Houthi rebels. [6]

According to the WHO Doctor, Yemen's Health Cluster received only 16% of the needed USD 392 million to assist 12.9 million vulnerable people with urgent health needs and disease outbreaks, such as measles, diphtheria, and cholera, that are worsening the health crisis. [7] Dr. Heinzelmann stressed the danger of Yemen becoming a ‘forgotten humanitarian crisis’, and urged the international community to ‘scale up its financial support to Yemen to avert untold human suffering and deaths in coming months’. [8]

Sources and Further Reading

[1] United Nations, ‘Geneva Press Briefing: UNICEF, WHO, IFRC’(21 April 2023) <https://media.un.org/en/asset/k15/k15izmh253> accessed 25 April 2023.

[2] ibid.

[3] ibid.

[4] ibid.

[5] United Nations, ‘Yemen: UN envoy welcomes mass prisoner release, urges push for political solution to war’ (14 April 2023) <https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/04/1135642> accessed 25 April 2023.

[6] United Nations, ‘Yemen at ‘critical juncture’ in bid to end eight-year war: UN Special Envoy’ (17 April 2023) <https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/04/1135727> accessed 25 April 2023.

[7] United Nations (n 1). 

[8] ibid.