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March 23, 2021Yemen, a country devastated by six years of war that claimed 250,000 victims.
A major famine is underway with over 16 million people without food and more than 2.2 million children at risk of malnutrition.
Added to this is the worsening of the conflict in all the main cities of the country, but especially in Marib (200 km from the capital Sana'a), which has already caused 1.2 million refugees, but could be more.
The conflict has created other emergencies such as in 2015 with the most serious cholera epidemic in history that has infected over 2 million people.
And, today, the Covid emergency is out of control.
In March the increase in infections was 22 times higher than in February with half of the hospitals destroyed, just 700 intensive care places, 500 lung ventilators and no vaccines.
"The more than 3,400 cases registered to date with 751 victims are only a small part of the real extent of the epidemic in the country", says Paolo Pezzati, policy advisor for humanitarian emergencies at Oxfam Italia. "Already months ago, the infection had spread in almost all the Governorates of Yemen, while the serious cases, which are the only ones to be tested, have been increasing exponentially in recent weeks, adding to increasingly intense fighting ".
But often many people do not seek treatment" for fear of being involved in the clashes or because they are unable to access the few hospitals in operation ".
But it is impossible to quantify the real infections "there are few tests available", explains Pezzati.