Yemen's Hospitals Buckle as Fighting Escalates, Aid Groups Rush Supplies
Aid agencies are racing to shore up Yemen's collapsing health system as renewed Houthi advances displace thousands and stretch hospitals beyond capacity.
Yemen's healthcare system is straining under a fresh wave of fighting, with aid organisations rushing medical supplies to hospitals and warning that malnutrition and disrupted services are compounding the toll on civilians.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it received 22 tons of life-saving medical items and weapon-wounded kits in Sanaa, part of a broader emergency response. The shipment is to be distributed to hospitals across the country.
"As fighting intensifies, hospitals and healthcare workers are under growing pressure to care for people who need urgent treatment," said Christine Cipolla, who heads the ICRC's delegation in Yemen.
Medical staff were seen working at Marib General Hospital, where an ambulance stood by, as the supplies moved through an ICRC warehouse in the capital.
Doctors Without Borders offered a mixed picture of hospital capacity. Emmanuel Massart, deputy coordinator of the group's operations in Yemen, said three main hospitals it supports outside its own facility halted activities in the first days of the recent fighting, and some have since resumed work. The main hospital closest to the organisation has restarted most services, including surgery, roughly 48 hours ago.
Massart described conditions across Mokha, Hodeida and Taiz as broadly similar, with severe medical problems driven by the prolonged war and reduced access to supplies. Malnutrition remains a major concern, he said, particularly along the west coast, where about half of the women arriving to give birth were malnourished — a rate he called unusually high.
The renewed hostilities mark the Houthis' largest land grab in years, reigniting a 12-year civil war and pushing up global fuel prices. The rebels have advanced down the Red Sea coast toward a key maritime chokepoint, threatening Saudi oil exports, and have fired at Saudi oil facilities and tankers. An attack on Saudi Arabia's east-west pipeline, blamed on Iran-backed militias in Iraq, has further rattled world markets.
Some 125,000 Yemenis have fled their homes during the rebel blitz. The conflict has killed more than 150,000 people and has at times brought the country to the brink of famine. The Houthis now appear to be eyeing Yemen's oil-rich east, with the Saudi-backed government and an array of rival forces — some of which fought each other as recently as January — standing in their way. The United States, Saudi Arabia's most important ally, appears to be sitting this one out.