The Yemeni government news agency, Saba, reported that “Prime Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, while chairing a meeting in the interim capital, Aden (southern Yemen), called on international and regional partners to renew their vital and continuous support for health services to overcome the current circumstances and avoid a potential humanitarian disaster.”
She added that “Bin Mubarak directed the formation of a committee to prepare a strategic plan to assess the needs of the health sector, a map of the required international interventions, and to determine implementation responsibilities and the time frame.”
Yemeni Health Minister Qasim Buhaibeh stressed during the meeting that “the international reduction will have a catastrophic impact on the health sector and affect the lives of millions of citizens.”
He said, “The reduction will lead to the closure of more than a thousand health facilities, expose the lives of 500,000 women to the risk of death, deprive 600,000 children of vaccination and health care services, and weaken the ability to confront many epidemic outbreaks.”
Buhaibeh called on health development partners to “sensitize the need to continue support to strengthen the health system and improve services provided to citizens.”
According to Saba News Agency, “The meeting discussed a number of proposals for financing alternatives, the required coordination with Yemen’s partners from countries and organizations to cover the financing gap in the health sector, and the complementary roles at the government level to ensure the sustainability of health care provision.”
In early February, the United Nations appealed to donors to provide urgent funding for the 2024 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, which requires $2.7 billion, in order to save the lives of more than 18.2 million people who need life-saving humanitarian assistance as a result of the conflict tearing the country apart, expecting that 17.6 million people will face severe food insecurity.
For the tenth consecutive year, Yemen has been suffering from an ongoing struggle for power between the internationally recognized government and the Ansar Allah movement (Houthis), the repercussions of which have been reflected in various aspects, including the health sector, as international organizations estimate that only half of the health facilities there are still operating, and they are also suffering from a severe shortage of medicines, equipment, and staff.
The war in Yemen, as of late 2021, has killed 377,000 people, and inflicted cumulative losses on the Yemeni economy estimated at $126 billion, while 80% of the population of about 35 million people are in need of humanitarian aid, according to the United Nations.
Source: Sputnik
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2024-08-06 12:21:59
