Doctors Without Borders (MSF) report from Yemen hospitals

The international humanitarian relief organization, Doctors Without Borders(MSF) recently released a report on the alarming numbers of mothers and children dying from a lack of proper healthcare in Yemen

Saudi-led airstrikes have hit Yemeni hospitals

The Saudi-led coalition has often targeted civilian infrastructure in the airstrikes. According to the Yemen Data Project, 33 airstrikes have targeted hospitals and directly hit them from April of 2015 to January of this year. The data from the project can be downloaded at their website.

Yemen health infrastructure collapsed since the start of war in 2015

MSF has increased its presence in Yemen and runs 20 health facilities and hires 2,200 people from within Yemen.

Taiz Houban Mother and Child hospital

This hospital is in Taiz governate. It was converted from a hotel into a hospital back in 2015. This hospital has seen 850 deaths between 2016 and 2018. Among the deaths were 17 mothers, 601 newborns and 242 children. 227 of the dead were newborns or children who were dead on arrival.

The Abs hospital

The other hospital featured in the report was the Abs hospital which is in the Haijah governorate. It has been supported by MSF since 2015, This hospital has seen the deaths of 705 people since 2015. This includes 269 children, 417 newborns and 19 mothers.

Journey to a hospital often treacherous

Going to a hospital for Yemeni mothers and their children is often treacherous. The extra time it takes due to dangerous roads can often cost lives. An MSF nurse in the Houban hospital says: "The long distances, the explosions and the clashes make the patients come late. We ask them ‘Why are you late? Why did you not come early?’ They answer that they traveled from 6 am and arrived at midnight. The clashes and the blocked roads made them late. Therefore we receive terrible cases: premature birth, bleeding, dead fetus. Mothers lose their lives. When we ask their families why they came late, they tell us it is because of the security situation and their economic conditions."

Continuing the war will result in huge death toll

A UN report found that the death toll will reach 233,000 by the end of 2019 if fighting continues. This would include 102,000 combat deaths, and 131,000 other deaths due to lack of food, health services and infrastructure.

Senate fails to override Trump's veto

As Al Jazeera reports: "The US Senate failed on Thursday to overturn President Donald Trump's veto of legislation that would have ended US military assistance for the Saudi-UAE war in Yemen. The vote handed a victory to the White House for its policy of continuing to back Saudi Arabia.The vote was 53 to 45, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto, despite a handful of Trump's fellow Republicans joining Democrats in backing the War Powers Resolution."

The appended video reports on President Trump's veto of the Yemen resolution.

Previously published in the Digital Journal