The humanitarian crisis in Yemen

The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is an urgent situation that needs to be addressed immediately to ensure that the people of Yemen would not continue to suffer. The issue was highlighted by Dr Weiam Al-Hunaishi a physician in Yemen and one of our Master of Public Health (MPH) graduates together with Obijiofor Aginam the Deputy Director of United Nations University-International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH) in Kuala Lumpur in their theBMJOpinion “There is an urgent need to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen“.

In the article, the authors highlighted the following issues: The ongoing civil war in Yemen is estimated to have killed over 13,000 people including 5,000 civilians since 2015. The United Nations and other sources have estimated that half of the 14 million people in Yemen will be facing starvation. Furthermore, there is a collapse of vital infrastructure, including health and water facilities, in many major cities in Yemen. The United Nation further estimated that over 50% of Yemen’s health facilities are not functioning, and Yemen’s entire health system faces imminent collapse. The article concluded with ” To save innocent lives now and ensure that “no one is left behind”, it is urgent to bring the vulnerable groups threatened by cholera, starvation, and malnutrition in Yemen within the parameters of a pragmatic humanitarian action.”

Weiam Al-Hunaishi is a Yemeni physician, and a Master of Public Health student in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya (UM) who recently interned with UNU-IIGH

In her MPH project, Dr Weiam conducted the research on “Factors Associated with Healthcare Workers Willingness to Participate in Disasters in Sana’a, Yemen”

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