Yemen: Renewed fighting puts pressure on the health system and aggravates humanitarian needs
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The recent escalation of fighting in Yemen has led to growing numbers of people wounded, adding pressure to a health system already stretched thin, and forcing thousands of families to flee their homes.
Since the 10th September, over 60 injured patients from the west coast have been admitted to Al-Gamhouria Hospital in Aden. Many of them require urgent operations, blood transfusions, close monitoring, and long periods of care. This has put significant pressure on the hospital's emergency room, operating theatres, wards, blood bank, medical stock, and staff.
MSF has expanded its support to the emergency room in response.
Our team is helping hospital staff assess the condition of incoming patients quickly, so the most critical are treated first. They are also supplying the emergency room, operating theatres and wards with emergency medicines and materials. In coordination with health authorities, MSF has also supported hospitals in Hodeidah with medicines and materials to treat people wounded in the fighting and has provided trauma kits to Taiz, Al-Bayda and Al Jawf hospitals.
Needs are likely to grow as the situation develops. Hospitals need the capacity to absorb sudden increases of wounded patients, while continuing the everyday care that people in Yemen depend on. More than 90 000 people have been newly displaced , according to the International Organization for Migration. Families who have been displaced have little access to food, clean water, shelter, sanitation, and medical care.
This escalation risks pushing Yemen's health system past the point of recovery. Years of funding cuts have already left health facilities with little capacity to absorb a new wave of conflict.
Sustained and flexible funding for Yemen remains essential, so women, children and the communities already bearing the heaviest burden are not left without care.
MSF has supported the orthopaedic department at Al-Gamhouria Hospital in Aden since June 2026. The support covers training nurses, infection prevention and control, microbiology laboratory testing, and the safe use of antibiotics, and a plan for responding when large numbers of wounded people arrive at the same time.
This followed the handover of the Aden Trauma Centre in 2025, which ended 12 years of treating and rehabilitating thousands of people severely injured by the war in Yemen.
Meanwhile, in Mocha, on the west coast, a small MSF team is still supporting the continuity of essential care in the maternity and paediatric units of the General Hospital, despite the severe shortage of health professionals remaining in the city. We are working to identify solutions to reinforce the team and secure supplies of essential medicines and anaesthetics, while also seeking assurances that the medical mission will be respected and that we will be able to operate fully in accordance with our principles of action.
As of Sunday, the 13th September, 23 patients were still receiving care in this facility, including 10 babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).