At Al-Sadaqa hospital, the five-year-old child, treated for two months for leukemia, holds her toys close to her.

In the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula, engulfed in one of the worst humanitarian tragedies in the world, his family must rely on a failing public service.

"We had no choice," his mother, Anissa Nasser, told AFP.

“We wanted to send him abroad for treatment,” but, she says, they couldn't afford it.

She is unemployed and her husband, who lives in the neighboring oil-rich monarchy of Saudi Arabia, has not worked for four years.

The public hospital offers free chemotherapy sessions, but Amina's family has to manage to get the necessary drugs and do tests in other establishments.

Aden has become the temporary capital of Yemen where the government has established itself, after being driven out of Sanaa in 2014 by the Houthis, rebels close to Iran.

A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, which includes the United Arab Emirates, has been intervening since 2015 to support loyalist forces.

The devastating fighting left hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced.

Many of Yemen's approximately 30 million people face hunger and disease.

A doctor examines a premature baby in an incubator at Al-Sadaqa hospital in southern Yemen on February 26, 2022 Saleh OBAIDI AFP

More than three quarters of the population depend on humanitarian aid, with international funding increasingly lacking.

"Gap"

In Aden, public hospitals suffer from a shortage of equipment and staff, doctors and nurses preferring to work for private clinics or international organizations with the best salaries, the country's economy having collapsed because of the war.

Supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the malnutrition ward at Al-Sadaqa Hospital appears to be in better condition.

At one and a half years old, Nouf is being treated for severe acute malnutrition in one of the rooms, an aunt standing by her side.

International organizations help certain units of the hospital by contributing to electricity costs, maintaining hygiene or paying bonuses to medical staff.

With Covid-19, Al-Sadaqa hospital, like others, had to cut back on budgets for services unrelated to this pandemic.

A man, whose legs have been amputated, at the entrance to Al-Joumhouria hospital, near a plaque recalling that Queen Elizabeth II laid the first stone there, on March 2, 2022 in Aden, Yemen Saleh OBAIDI AFP

The general director of the hospital, Kafaya Al-Jazei, recognizes a kind of "gap between the different services".

"If there is support from an international organization (in a section), all the staff will want to work there with the aim of improving their living conditions," she told AFP.

In a 2021 report, the World Bank estimated that only half of Yemen's health facilities are fully functional and that more than 80% of the population still face great difficulties in accessing food, water drinking water and health services.

"Stay here"

At the entrance to Al-Joumhouria, another public hospital in Aden, a plaque recalls that Queen Elizabeth II laid the first stone there.

Today, the establishment also lacks personnel, materials and basic equipment.

"The hospital is not maintained or air-conditioned. There are water leaks in the bathrooms. The building is old and dilapidated," Zoubeida Said, a 52-year-old nurse, told AFP.

Complaining about low salaries and the lack of executives, the staff demonstrated on several occasions to denounce the "deplorable" state of the establishment, by the admission of its acting head, Doctor Salem Al-Chabhi.

Al-Joumhouria hospital in Aden, southern Yemen, on March 2, 2022 Saleh OBAIDI AFP

According to him, the hospital's budget has remained unchanged since the beginning of the war despite the growing needs.

For lack of general practitioners at the hospital, "the students of the Faculty of Medicine are hired and work for 10,000 riyals (about nine euros) per day", explains Salem Al-Chabhi.

Opposite the hospital, a new promotion of medical students knows what awaits them.

Some hope to emigrate, while others seek to work with international organizations.

This is the case of Eyad Khaled.

"We want a job with a good salary and in a safe place," the student who is about to graduate told AFP.

Heba Ebadi wants to stay and specialize in gynecology, "even if the health system is deteriorating".

"We want to help people here," she said.

"Who are we going to leave them to? We have to stay here!".

© 2022 AFP