Marib – Yemen’s health care system is preparing for the worst, as COVID-19 begins to take hold in a country already struggling to deal with the demands brought on by over five years of conflict and the resulting mass displacement.

The country officially confirmed its first case of COVID-19 in mid-April. Only around 50 per cent of health facilities are fully functional across Yemen and there is a major shortage of resources, including health workers, medicine and medical equipment.

“The country’s health care system is at breaking point; health needs were already extremely high before COVID-19. Local authorities and communities in Marib and across Yemen are struggling to meet these needs,” said Christa Rottensteiner, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Yemen Chief of Mission.

In governorates like Marib, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering, the increased number of people seeking medical assistance has overwhelmed clinics and hospitals. Most recently, an escalation of hostilities in Sana’a, Al Jawf and Marib has led to the displacement of over 9,000 families to Marib city and surrounding areas.

The Government of Japan has partnered with IOM to improve the capacity of emergency health services in Marib, Yemen. IOM is providing primary and secondary health services to vulnerable displaced and conflict-affected communities across the governorate, aiming to support 96,000 people over the course of a year. The project comes in response to the acute needs and limited availability of humanitarian actors and services present in the governorate even prior to the growing threat of COVID-19.

“We are sincerely concerned about the continuous deterioration of the health situation in Yemen due to the prolonged conflict,” said a representative from the Embassy of Japan to Yemen. “This assistance to IOM comes as part of Japan’s contributions to alleviate Yemeni people’s suffering while the risk of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 is increasing significantly in the country.”

“This generous contribution comes at a critical time for the people of Yemen, as they face the spread of COVID-19 and a growing number of cholera cases. This partnership will increase the availability of life-saving care for those that need it most,” Rottensteiner added.  

The Government of Japan and IOM have a long-standing partnership responding to humanitarian crises around the world. In 2019, IOM implemented a large-scale Government of Japan funded health project, which provided nearly 100,000 medical consultations in vulnerable communities in Yemen.

IOM provides health care to people in Yemen in mobile clinics and supports public health facilities across several governorates. In 2019, the Organization supported the provision of over 1.35 million medical consultations for displaced people, conflict-affected communities and migrants — an over 50 per cent increase from the number of consultations provided with IOM’s support in 2018.

For more information, please contact Olivia Headon in Sana’a, Tel: +35383 302 2648 (WhatsApp: +967 730 552 233), Email: oheadon@iom.int