WHO says 5,166 casualties recorded in Yemen since fighting resumed in August

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ADEN, Yemen — The World Health Organization says 5,166 people have been killed or wounded in Yemen since fighting escalated on Aug. 6.

The toll includes 959 deaths and 4,207 injuries, according to the agency’s sixth report on the escalation, published Oct. 4.

WHO recorded 685 casualties between Sept. 27 and Oct. 2. Of those, 121 people died and 564 were wounded.

That works out at 114 casualties a day, up from 101 a day in the previous reporting period, the agency said.

The highest single-day counts came at the end of the period. WHO verified 152 casualties on Oct. 1 and 161 on Oct. 2.

Taiz accounted for the largest share. The governorate made up 233 of the casualties WHO itemised, or 47 percent, with 225 recorded in the three days to Oct. 2.

Lahj accounted for 123 casualties and Marib for 120, according to the report. Marib and Taiz each showed a death rate of 28 percent.

Yemen Herald could not independently verify the totals. WHO compiles them from Yemen’s Health Emergency Operations Center, which collects reports from health facilities, and no organisation outside that chain has published a count of its own.

The agency said it could not confirm reports of attacks on health care. Communication blackouts and protection risks prevent real-time checking, and no damage to facilities or ambulances appeared in the reports available to it.

Displacement has moved with the fighting. WHO put the total at 197,906 people, in 29,519 families, across 10 governorates.

Taiz again led, with 13,925 displaced families. Lahj followed with 7,179 and Aden with 3,741.

The figure rose 8 percent in five days, an increase of 2,106 families, the report said. Two-thirds of that came in Lahj.

About 180,000 of the registered displaced have not been reached by dedicated health services, according to WHO.

A further 804 families were recorded through the agency’s Mukalla hub, which covers Hadramout, al-Mahra and Shabwah.

Another 3,635 people, in 988 households, crossed from Yemen into Djibouti as of Sept. 27. Women and girls made up 50.9 percent of them, and children under 18 made up 46.6 percent.

Cholera is spreading alongside the fighting. WHO reported 7,871 suspected cases and 27 related deaths in Yemen so far in 2026, a case fatality rate of 0.34 percent.

Nearly a quarter of those cases came in the four weeks before publication: 1,892 cases and 11 deaths. Weekly suspected cases tripled over three weeks, from 217 to 647.

Abyan reported 558 cases in that window, followed by Lahj with 359, al-Dhale’e with 317 and Taiz with 316.

WHO said 96 percent of cholera cases were in people not vaccinated against the disease. Children under 15 accounted for 38 percent of them.

Measles is also circulating. The agency counted more than 22,000 suspected cases and 128 deaths this year to week 38, against vaccination coverage of 45 percent for each of two doses. It puts the level needed to halt transmission at 95 percent.

Dengue has produced 9,604 suspected cases and 37 deaths in Yemen this year, and diphtheria 421 cases and 15 deaths.

Malnutrition is appearing among the displaced. International Medical Corps teams screened 54 displaced children under five and found nine with severe acute malnutrition and 29 with the moderate form.

WHO estimated that 9,142 children in Taiz will need treatment for severe acute malnutrition. At least five facilities have run out of ready-to-use therapeutic food.

Health facilities are thinly covered. WHO said 534 facilities across nine governorates have partner support, while about 508 have none and are overstretched by new arrivals.

Al-Thawra Hospital in Taiz, the main referral centre there, holds roughly two months of stock after receiving five metric tons of medicines from International Medical Corps.

The agency’s warehouse in Aden is out of surgical items, anaesthetics, blood-bank consumables and fuel, according to the report.

Of 20 planned first-tier trauma stabilisation points, six have no confirmed partner support. WHO identified a gap in stabilising the wounded and reaching surgery within the first hour.

Thirty-seven mobile medical teams are working across 35 districts, the report said. Several districts have one team or none.

The International Committee of the Red Cross runs eight casualty collection points and five Yemen Red Crescent ambulances. Ambulance shortfalls were recorded in Taiz, Aden, Marib, Lahj, al-Dhale’e and Abyan.

A first wave of 258 emergency health and trauma kits left WHO’s logistics hub in Dubai on Sept. 22, valued at $184,082 and weighing 8.9 metric tons. It is bound for Aden.

Dispatches from the Aden warehouse between Sept. 13 and Sept. 23 reached 40 facilities across 10 governorates, totalling 59.3 metric tons.

WHO said it needs $9 million for the response it is working to now. It has secured $2 million, leaving a gap of 78 percent.

A wider escalation would add $18 million to $22 million, the agency said, taking the maximum gap to $29 million, or 94 percent.

The money would pay for trauma and surgical supplies, health services for displaced people, outbreak control and the continuity of essential care.

WHO’s reporting period closed on Oct. 2, two days before the government announced a campaign to retake Houthi-held territory. Casualties from its opening days are not in the total.

The agency deployed eight Starlink terminals to public health emergency operations centres in Aden, Marib, Taiz, Mukalla, Seiyun, Socotra and al-Ghaydah for real-time reporting.