Over 1 Million Health Consultations Provided in Yemen in 2019: UN

Yemen’s public sector has been pushed to “a breaking point”, as Saudi Arabia continues to wage its deadly war on the Arab country, prompting the closure of half of the country’s health facilities.

As of September 11, 1,095,072 health consultations were provided by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as part of its emergency lifesaving services and support to the health sector to ensure it continues to operate in the war-battered country, the agency said.

Over 19,000 people received psychosocial counseling, 113,000 others received reproductive health consultations, and more than 71,000 were part of health awareness-raising activities.

Public health facilities were already strained before the onset of the Saudi war in 2015. Now, people must travel long distances for essential services, while some are forced to go without. 

Further, dried up financial resources and a lack of health professionals has catalyzed the problem, while the number of people seeking medical assistance continues to rise in certain areas, overwhelming health centers.

The country’s humanitarian situation remains the worst in the world, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). Around 80 percent of the population is in need of some kind of assistance, roughly 24 million people, and some 14.4 million find themselves in acute need, nearly two million more than just one year ago.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

An estimated two million children in Yemen are currently suffering from acute malnutrition, including 360,000 under five years old, according to recent UNICEF reports.