The World Health Organization called on international donors to raise $392 million to provide health services necessary to save the lives of millions of people in Yemen in 2023, a day before the United Nations held an international donors' conference to support the humanitarian response plan in Yemen.
The country needs "urgent and significant support from international donors and other partners, to avoid the potential actual collapse of its health system," said Adham Abdel Moneim, WHO representative in Yemen.
Abdel Moneim explained that ensuring the continued functioning of depleted health facilities and the provision of basic services in Yemen requires new funding of $392 million.
The statement of the representative of the World Health Organization was issued a day before the donors' conference organized by Sweden and Switzerland at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, which aims to mobilize funding for the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan, amounting to $4.3 billion to help 17.3 million people in Yemen.
The same spokesman stated that among the 12.9 million Yemenis among the most vulnerable groups, there are "540,000 children under the age of five who face severe acute malnutrition, with a direct risk of death."
The war in Yemen, which the United Nations says is suffering the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, has destroyed the health sector infrastructure in a country that lives in extreme poverty, and 80% of its 32.6 million people depend on aid.
Disease rates
Doctors Without Borders said yesterday, Saturday, that Yemen is witnessing a rise in the rates of preventable diseases, with the difficulty of accessing patients in need of medical care, due to the continuing insecurity.
The International President of Doctors Without Borders, Kratos Christo, said during his visit to Al-Mokha Surgical Hospital, in western Yemen, that the continued insecurity makes access difficult for patients in need of care, as well as for humanitarian organizations.
The war that has been going on in Yemen for about 8 years has led to the closure of nearly half of the medical facilities, in addition to killing and injuring thousands, according to UN reports.