Houthis targeting health sector in Yemen
The Houthi militia in Yemen has
taken control of United Nations organizations, especially those operating in
the Arab country's health sector.
This is particularly true to the
organizations with headquarters in Yemeni capital Sana'a.
The Houthis prevent these
organizations from intervening in emergency and humanitarian cases, depriving
citizens and displaced people of access to medicine and health services.
New episode
In a new episode of a series of
crimes committed by the Houthis, the group had killed and injured over 139
health workers, according to the Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights.
It said these health workers had
been killed in Marib province, north-east of Sana'a, since the beginning of the
war in Yemen.
The ministry's office in Marib said
in a report on December 16 that 2,668 violations of the right to health
services had been committed in the province since 2015 by the Houthis.
These violations, it added, ranged
from shelling, killing, injury, arrest, occupation, looting, and prohibition to
deprivation and threats.
The office documented the killing of
53 health workers, including a doctor, a nurse and a health assistant, inside
the facilities targeted by the Houthis.
Eighty-six other health workers, it
said, were injured inside the same facilities.
The office also reported that 134
health facilities were bombed by missiles, ballistic missiles and drones, some
of which were targeted more than once, causing the total destruction of 16
health facilities.
The office added that 34 health
facilities were also partially destroyed.
The office documented 18 cases of
occupation and control of health facilities, 12 cases of looting of health
facilities, 17 cases of arrest, 102 cases of travel ban, and 145 cases of
threats carried out by the Houthi militia against health workers in Marib.
It added that the Iran-backed group
prevented five medicine campaigns by the UN and international organizations, including
two by the Red Cross.
This, it said, suspended the supply
of medicines to 125 medical facilities, and deprived 1,785 patients of
treatments for chronic diseases.
The same action, the office said,
also deprived 600,000 citizens of medical services.
