War has devastated the healthcare system in Yemen, a country now facing a protracted political, humanitarian and developmental crisis, leaving thousands of cancer patients without a proper diagnosis or care.
From the small village of Al-Mahwit to the Cancer Center in Sanaa, Ahmed Al-Hijari traveled to the Yemeni capital with hopes for his son Hussein, who is battling nerve cancer.
But Ahmed's struggle is not just against the disease. He also faces the challenges of war and sanctions, which have made finding medicine difficult.
"My son has been sick for about two months, and our situation is very difficult. I came from Al-Mahwit to seek treatment for my son. Because of the war, there's no medicine and we need to travel abroad for treatment, but our circumstances are tough," said Ahmed Al-Hijari.
While the world marks the World Cancer Day on Feb 4 by raising awareness and improving prevention and the search for a cure, around 80,000 people in Yemen are suffering from the disease.
Each year, 30,000 new cases are recorded, largely due to the consequences of the ongoing war since 2014 in which internationally banned weapons have been used.
As the world works to improve methods of treatment, Yemen's healthcare system faces major challenges. The situation has been made worse by current U.S. sanctions, following the reclassification of the Houthis, a Yemen-based militant group, as a "Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO)" last month. This recent reclassification is expected to worsen conditions, leading to new obstacles to the delivery of medical supplies and threatening the lives of thousands of patients.
"Any restrictions on the operation of companies or on the arrival of safe medicine in Yemen will directly affect cancer patients and all other patients. Any measures that hinder patients from traveling for treatment will have an extremely severe impact on them," said Abdullah Thawabah, director of National Cancer Center in Sanaa.
Yemen's healthcare sector is on the brink of collapse, with a severe shortage of medicines and essential equipment for cancer treatment such as radioactive materials, including iodine. More than 320,000 patients are unable to travel for treatment due to the closure of the Sanaa airport. The United Nations has warned of an impending health disaster unless immediate aid is provided.
Yemen is still facing a protracted political, humanitarian, and developmental crisis, more than 10 years after the full outbreak of civil conflict marked by the Houthi forces' capture of Sanaa, Yemen's capital, on Sept. 21, 2014.
The latest round of the Gaza conflict and its spillover effect have once again dimmed the prospects for peace in Yemen following the historical reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran in March 2023. As the civil conflict drags on, the Yemeni people are still finding themselves yearning for peace.
Yemen faces health crisis as war cripples medical system
