Health-care services in Yemen: struggling to cope

Roadblocks, closed streets and other obstacles have often made it difficult for first-aid and medical teams to reach the injured in San’a, the capital city of Yemen. 'Because of the relentless and intensifying violence that has rocked San'a in recent weeks, the casualty toll has risen very quickly – as has the need for medical care,' said Eric Marclay, the head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen. 'On several occasions, first-aid workers were prevented from approaching and evacuating casualties. Some first-aid and medical personnel have even been threatened or attacked. Medical facilities must be spared at all times, and they must provide treatment in an impartial manner,' he added. The ICRC continues to remind all those involved of their responsibility to ensure that the injured and wounded have access to the care they require, and that medical and first-aid teams are allowed to carry out their life-saving work at all times, according to a news release issued by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Over the past month, the ICRC has continued to work hand-in-hand with various branches of the Yemen Red Crescent. In particular, it has helped their emergency-response teams administer first aid to over 1,600 injured people in violence-stricken areas. In San'a, with ICRC support, Yemen Red Crescent volunteers administered first aid to around 1,500 injured people, transferred serious cases to health-care facilities and retrieved over 50 dead bodies. An ICRC surgical team operated on 30 critically wounded patients. The ICRC and the Yemen Red Crescent distributed food and household essentials to over 66,500 people, many of whom were displaced. The ICRC ensured that over 1,400,000 violence-affected people in several Yemeni governorates had sufficient quantities of clean water by upgrading wells in mosques, delivering water by truck, providing diesel for generators, and by other means. The international committee of the Red Cross meanwhile, supplied one-month food rations and hygiene items to 22,400 residents of Sa'ada's old city and to 7,000 people living in camps for the displaced, and two-month food rations and household essentials to over 1,700 formerly displaced people who returned to their home villages.