ICRC says Yemen's health system has little capacity left for a surge in casualties

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SANAA, Yemen — Yemen’s health system may have little capacity left to absorb a surge in casualties, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday.

Fighting has intensified across several front lines, and hospitals near them are struggling to cope, the organisation said in a statement.

The account rests on the ICRC’s own statement, which the news agency Reuters also carried. Yemen Herald found no independent verification of conditions inside the hospitals.

Marib, Taiz and the Red Sea coast carry some of the heaviest casualty loads, according to the organisation.

Some front-line facilities recorded more than 700 admissions in a single week.

“Trauma care staff are under enormous pressure,” said Feras Abusamra, the ICRC’s health coordinator.

Only a small proportion of Yemen’s functioning health facilities can provide comprehensive care for the wounded, Abusamra said.

Eduardo Toro, an ICRC surgeon at Marib General Hospital, said added pressure on hospitals “can mean fewer beds, fewer supplies and less capacity.”

“Our concern is that the system may have little capacity left to absorb a major surge in casualties,” said Christine Cipolla, who heads the organisation’s delegation in Yemen.

Front-line hospitals are short of surgical supplies, anaesthetics, oxygen and medicines, Reuters reported.

The organisation has brought more than 500 tonnes of medical supplies into Sanaa and Aden since the escalation began, by chartered flight and by truck.

It supports more than 40 health facilities across the country.

In Aden, Taiz, Al-Dhale and Lahj that support covers hospitals, eight public health care centres and more than 20 casualty collection points.

More than 10 health facilities in Taiz receive ICRC support.

Three hospitals in Marib are on the list, along with Zabid Rural Hospital in Hodeidah and Al Hazm in Al Jawf.

In Aden the organisation supports Aboud Hospital and Al-Jumhuriya Hospital.

A mobile surgical team has worked at Marib General Hospital since Aug. 23.

Another supports Al Talh Hospital in Saada.

More than 60 ambulances run with ICRC support, together with the Yemen Red Crescent Society.

The organisation also provides trauma training and prosthetic and rehabilitation services.

The ICRC said last week it had received more than 1,800 requests to trace people missing in the conflict, the state news agency Saba reported.

The World Food Programme issued a warning of its own on the same day, saying shifting front lines had cut people off from food assistance.

El-Khidir Daloum is the agency’s country director in Yemen.

The government describes the fighting as a Houthi escalation. The Houthi administration in Sanaa disputes government accounts of it.

Reuters carried no response from either side to the two agencies’ warnings.

More than 22 million people in Yemen need humanitarian assistance, the UN humanitarian office said in its plan for this year.

The plan counted more than 2.2 million children under five who are acutely malnourished, including 516,157 with severe acute malnutrition.

It put the number of people displaced inside the country at 5.2 million.

The World Health Organization reported a sharp rise in cholera on Tuesday.

Yemen has recorded 8,034 suspected cases and 27 deaths so far this year, the agency said.

About a quarter of those cases came in the four weeks before the report.

Weekly suspected cases rose from 217 in the week to Sept. 12 to 647 in the week to Oct. 3.

Five governorates in the south-west — Abyan, Lahij, al-Dhalea, Taiz and Aden — account for 92 percent of reported cases, according to the agency.

Those governorates host many of the displaced.

The disease has reached remote displacement camps in Hadramout, in the east, where medical teams struggle to reach patients.

Renewed fighting has driven more than 200,000 people from their homes, the WHO said.

Fighting between Houthi forces and the government resumed in July.

“Families fleeing conflict are now facing another threat from diseases that can be prevented and treated,” said Annette Heinzelmann, the agency’s emergency director for the region.

Heinzelmann said outbreaks could spread quickly without “urgent funding and unimpeded access to safe water, vaccination and essential health services.”

The WHO has secured $3.78 million of the $31 million it says it needs for a 90-day emergency response, a shortfall of about $27 million.

The money would expand disease surveillance in displacement sites and send out rapid response teams, the agency said.

It would also strengthen cholera treatment and infection prevention inside health facilities.

Humanitarian and medical staff must have safe passage, the ICRC said, and ambulances must be able to operate without obstruction.

The organisation said it engages authorities and armed forces on all sides, urging compliance with international humanitarian law.

Its rehabilitation work includes prosthetics and outreach for people who have lost limbs.

A new maternal unit at the Al-Shugiarah Primary Health Care Center in Hodeidah runs on solar power.

Nabil Sharyan, a lawyer who heads the Justice for Rights and Development Organization, warned this month of harm to patients, children, women and the elderly in Taiz, in remarks to Al Jazeera.

Yemen’s foreign minister, Afrah al-Zouba, wrote to UN and Red Cross officials on Wednesday asking for measures to reopen access to Taiz, Saba reported.

The ICRC did not say how many wounded people its supported facilities had treated since the escalation began.