12/11/2015
Hospitals and health facilities have repeatedly come under fire during Yemen’s conflict, leaving the country’s medical system in tatters at a time when it’s needed the most.
The nine-month war in Yemen has left more than 5,000 people dead and some 27,500 injured. Yemen's medical system was already fragile, reliant on imported drugs and the assistance of humanitarian organizations like Doctors Without Borders. Nearly one-quarter of medical facilities have closed due to damage or shortages of supplies, fuel or staff since the conflict escalated in March.
More than 99 health facilities, including hospitals and clinics, have been damaged or destroyed in Yemen’s war, according to the World Health Organization.
Last week, bombs slammed into a tented clinic where Doctors Without Borders was treating people displaced by war in the Yemeni city of Taiz, wounding nine people, including two clinic staff. The main hospital in the city was hit by rockets last month.
Another Doctors Without Borders hospital, in a remote mountain valley of Yemen, was reduced to rubble in late October by hours of bombardment. The staff and patients managed to escape with their lives, but the last functioning hospital in the Haydan area of northern Saada province was destroyed.
"Bombings are a daily reality for Yemenis, even inside hospitals," Mego Terzian, president of Doctors Without Borders France, said after the bombing.
The full article continues on the Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/yemen-hospitals-doctors-without-borders_5669c99de4b0f290e52260dd
The full article continues on the Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/yemen-hospitals-doctors-without-borders_5669c99de4b0f290e52260dd