The World Health Organization warned, on Saturday, of the worsening health crisis in Yemen and the risk of the spread of many diseases due to lack of funding year after year.
The United Nations organization said: “Over the past five years, the financing gap has widened and reached a critical point, which will lead to sharp cuts in aid, and this will affect the provision of life-saving health services to the most vulnerable groups.”
She stressed that these severe cuts in funding will lead “to millions of diseases, widespread hunger, and limited access to health care services,” adding, “In short, the situation will get worse.”
The organization indicated that what raises concern is that funding trends are constantly declining, which will exacerbate the crisis. While “the coverage rate reached 87 percent in 2019, funding decreased to more than 50 percent in 2022, while the current year 2023 is witnessing A severe funding shortfall, as by August, only 31.2 percent of the requested amount of $4.34 billion had been received.”
The World Health Organization stressed the urgent need for continued support to meet the increasing needs as the humanitarian crisis remains unchanged.
After eight years of war between pro-government forces backed by Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, who are close to Iran, the conflict has plunged Yemen, already the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula, into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and caused its gross domestic product to halve, according to the World Bank.
Last February, the World Health Organization appealed to raise $392 million before a donor conference headed by the United Nations in Geneva to avoid a “possible collapse” of the health sector in Yemen, which is mired in war.
The World Health Organization said at the time that about half of the health facilities in Yemen were only partially functioning or completely out of service due to a lack of staff, funds, electricity, medicines, supplies and equipment.
The organization’s representative in Yemen, Adham Abdel Moneim Ismail, said: “Yemen needs urgent and solid support… to avoid the possible collapse of its health system.”
“New funding worth $392 million is required” to ensure that health facilities continue to provide services to 12.9 million people, he added in a statement.
Ismail explained that among those in need of assistance, 540,000 children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition with an immediate risk of death.
His invitation came on the eve of a donor meeting organized by the United Nations, Switzerland and Sweden.
The United Nations estimates that 21.6 million people, two-thirds of Yemen’s population, will need humanitarian aid and protection services in 2023.
2023-09-23 23:05:32
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