Cancer Patients Increasing amid Deterioration of Health Sector in War-Torn Yemen

In addition to displacement, extensive poverty and hunger, the seven-year-old aggression on Yemen has seriously affected most of the country's health sector, particularly cancer patients, who lack essential medicines and adequate health care.

In conjunction with World Cancer Day, which is observed annually on February 4, the National Cancer Control Foundation (NCCF) in Yemen organized a two-day program dubbed "Social Welfare Forum for Cancer Patients – Sana'a 2022" to advocate the importance of providing food and shelter to cancer patients and their families.

Yemeni Minister of Health Dr. Taha Al-Mutawakil said during the World Cancer Day event that this day comes and Yemen is witnessing a great crisis and the number of patients has doubled as a result of the weapons used against the country by the Saudi-led coalition aggression.

The minister explained that there are over 60,000 cases in cancer centers, with a shortage of drugs, equipment, and diagnostics, and that the number of youngsters diagnosed with leukemia is on the rise.

“Over 3,000 children with cancer are at risk of dying as a result of the imposed US-Saudi siege, that kept them of receiving the necessary health care,” he added.

The minister also highlighted the effects of a Saudi-led coalition blockade on the country’s health care system by preventing patients from leaving for treatment and prohibiting the entry of medicines and other essential supplies.

The Yemeni Minister of Health stressed that the opening of Sana'a International Airport is a humanitarian need, calling for it to be neutralized and considering it as an outlet that must be opened in order to allow patients to travel.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Jalal Al-Fakeeh, the Foundation's Information Director, said the extreme cost of health care drained cancer patients and left their social needs unmet.

"Cancer patients in Yemen have two fights: a personal fight with their illness, and another fight to provide basic needs for their families amid a prolonged war that has severely affected everything," he said.

Approximately 35,000 Yemenis currently have cancer, 16,200 of whom are women and 4,300 are children, and more than 11,000 are newly diagnosed with the disease every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The ongoing conflict resulted in the closure of many cancer clinics due to a lack of staff, medicine and equipment, forcing people to travel many miles to get vital treatment or face death, eventually.

Al-Fakeeh said the war limited cancer patients' treatment as the whole country depends on only one radiotherapy device located in a private hospital in the capital, Sana'a, where patients from all corners of Yemen have to travel many miles to get treatment.

"Many businessmen, who were the main donors of cancer patients, left the country due to the insecure conditions," he noted, saying this left the private donors with either reducing the amount of their donations or completely ending them.

The Foundation had been providing charitable services for people with cancer since its establishment in 2003 and opened more branches in the cities of Taiz, Aden, Ibb and Hudaydah, treating thousands of patients.

In 2021, more than 20 million people need health assistance in Yemen while only half of Yemen's facilities are still functioning, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan.