A/HRC/42/CRP.1
710. In al-Durayhimi city, al-Hudaydah Governorate, the only maternity unit and
childcare centre was partially destroyed during a coalition airstrike on 11 October 2018. 1114
Interviewees told the Group that on the same day a rural hospital had also been shelled by
unknown perpetrators. As a result, the city of al-Durayhimi was left without facilities and
services to assist women during pregnancy and childbirth. The Therapeutic Feeding Centre
of al-Kitaf Rural Hospital in Sa’dah was damaged by the 26 March 2019 coalition airstrike
in the vicinity of the hospital.1115
711. The above-mentioned strikes, if proven to be deliberate attacks against health-care
facilities, may lead to individual criminal responsibility for the war crime of deliberately
attacking protected objects.
Access to health
712. The conflict has further reduced the number of functioning medical facilities, in
particular those providing care for children. According to OCHA, only 20 per cent of the
health facilities provide integrated maternal and child health care.1116 An additional factor
limiting the access to functioning health facilities is the staff shortages – particularly of
specialized staff, due to the failure to pay health workers and the emigration of trained
medical personnel.1117 See chapter on violations related to the humanitarian situation for
further details. There are 10 health workers per 10,000 people in Yemen – less than half the
WHO minimum benchmark.1118 The depletion in the health workforce and facilities means
that overall the quality and availability of healthcare has been undermined and might
remain parlous for decades after the conflict.
713. The Experts documented instances where parties to the conflict have prevented food
from reaching civilians, thus worsening food insecurity in the country (See chapter on
violations related to the humanitarian situation, section on Starvation as method of
warfare). According to humanitarian service providers, as of December 2018, there were
3.2 million people who required treatment for acute malnutrition, including two million
children under five years old and 1.14 million pregnant and lactating women (PLW). At the
outset of the crisis, 850,000 children were suffering from acute malnutrition and 160,000
children from severe acute malnutrition.1119 While food insecurity is one of the reasons that
explains the large number of malnourished children in Yemen, the inadequate access to
health services remains as one of the underlying causes of malnutrition. (See chapter on
Violations related to the humanitarian situation for further details with regard to the
coalition exacerbating the crisis).
714. In addition to the lack of access to quality health-care, children in Yemen have been
affected by communicable diseases and have had limited or no access to lifesaving
vaccines, leaving them at increased risk of morbidity and mortality related to vaccinepreventable disease.1120 According to the information received by the Group, parties to the
conflict have prevented the implementation of disease control programmes. For example, in
July 2017 half a million doses of the cholera vaccine were ready to be brought into Yemen.
The Government of Yemen and the Houthis only allowed the vaccines into Yemen in
December 2017, with the vaccination campaign only starting in May 2018 in the south, and
1114
UNITAR-UNOSAT images showed the building mostly destroyed. Confidential Sources on File.
Confidential Sources on File.
1116 OCHA, Yemen Humanitarian Needs Overview 2019, December 2018, p. 37; at
https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/2019_Yemen_HNO_FINAL.pdf.
1117 Confidential Sources on File.
1118 Ibid.
1119
UNOCHA, Yemen Humanitarian Needs Overview 2015, 22 December 2014, at
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/2015- yemen-humanitarian-needs-overview, p. 14.
1120 WHO reports, for 2017-2019, 1.794.580 suspected cases of cholera and 3,412 associated deaths,
of which 32.77 per cent were children under 14 years old. The Group was also informed of a
‘diphtheria’ outbreak, with total cases as of 4 May 2019 of up to 3652, and 210 associated deaths of
which 89 per cent were children under 14 years old. The most affected governorates are Ibb and alHudaydah.
1115
170
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents