Yemen
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) continues to support Yemen’s fragile health system, providing comprehensive medical services and responding tosurging rates of malnutrition and preventable diseases.
Our activities in 2024
outpatient consultations
people admitted to hospital
births assisted, including 5160 caesarean sections
surgical interventions
individual mental health consultations
people treated for measles
children admitted to inpatient feeding programmes
Yemen’s ongoing conflict has severely damaged the country’s infrastructure and health systems, leading to widespread displacement, poverty, and economic collapse. Millions of people lack access to food, clean water, and healthcare. Preventable diseases like acute watery diarrhea, measles, and malaria continue to spread, disproportionately affecting vulnerable groups such as children under five, pregnant and lactating women, and marginalized communities.
The humanitarian crisis is worsening in 2025, with nearly half of Yemen’s population — an estimated 17.1 million people — facing food insecurity. Compounding the crisis, the US announced in April 2025 that it would terminate all aid to Yemen. As the largest donor since the conflict began, this decision could have catastrophic consequences, as humanitarian actors are leaving Yemen, and health services are being reduced. The cuts are expected to end food assistance for 2.4 million people and halt nutritional care for 100.000 children, just as malnutrition peaks.
MSF witnesses that the two-thirds of pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls admitted to MSF hospitals are malnourished, who will no longer be able to access this support throughout their pregnancy and postpartum period.
On the eve of 6 May, the US President Donald Trump announced that the AA will cease attacks on ships in the Red Sea, while the US Army will suspend air strikes. The truce was brokered by Oman as a mediator. Since March 15, the United States (US) Army - with assistance of the United Kingdom (UK) Army starting 1 May - has conducted around 100 airstrikes in Yemen, targeting AA military sites and civilian infrastructure in the north. On 6 May, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launched airstrikes on Sanaa, hitting the international airport, power stations, and a cement factory. The airport was unusable until 17 May, and the strikes caused widespread power outages. A day earlier, the IDF damaged Hodaydah port, vital for 80% of Yemen’s food imports, following an AA missile attack on Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in Israel. The targeting of these vital infrastructure risks affecting the supply of food and essential goods to the Yemeni people.
Civilian Impact Monitoring Project (CIMP) data shows that from 15 March to 7 May there were at least 629 civilian casualties, out of which 293 fatalities, including 24 children. In total, at least three hospitals were destroyed in raids, including ACF-run health center.