DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — As Houthi fighters swept into the western Yemeni port city of Mokha earlier this month, Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces abandoned their armored vehicles and aid groups say families fled with no time to grab their clothes. Around 125,000 people were displaced in just a matter of days, says the U.N. The U.N. says most healthcare facilities in Mokha immediately shut down, but Mokha's General Hospital remained open as staff treated patients who cannot leave.
"There are pregnant women who need urgent care. There are women who need cesarean sections. There are children who need treatment and patients with medical conditions who simply cannot wait," says Sarah Ahmed, a health promotion supervisor with the aid group, Doctors Without Borders, in Mokha's General Hospital.
In a voice memo shared with NPR by the aid group, she says Mokha's hospital staff are focusing on only the most essential services, including caring for babies in the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU. Even before the latest fighting, which comes after years of civil war, Yemen was among the world's poorest countries. Years of conflict have led to widespread hunger with some 22 million people — half the population — in need of humanitarian aid.
The current fighting shattered a yearslong truce, and plunged Yemen back into conflict at a time of severe funding shortages and as the U.S. is mired in another Gulf conflict, with Iran. Aid groups say Yemen needs urgent attention and millions more in funding now. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization says it can no longer transfer patients from Mokha to the government stronghold of Aden in the south, and that the city of Taiz quote "must plan for isolation" as roads to Aden come under fire.
Doctors Without Borders is one of several aid groups warning that the needs of people in western Yemen will grow as more people are displaced from the frontlines of fighting. The Houthis, who are supported by Iran, say the Saudi Air Force has launched hundreds of airstrikes across areas of western Yemen since the group captured territory on Sept. 10 and 11, including Mokha. The U.N. confirms some civilian casualties from those airstrikes, as well as hundreds of people wounded in the fighting.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree says the group seized 5,400 square kilometers (about 2,100 square miles) of western territory, including Mokha and islands in the Bab el-Mandeb strait in the Red Sea. The Houthis' capture of these territories from Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces helps the group, which already controls Yemen's capital, Sanaa, further consolidate control of this key waterway, where they've attacked Saudi oil tankers and blocked them from transiting. The Houthis have also hit Saudi air bases, as well as Saudi oil sites.
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