Yemen

Sanaa/Paris, October 20, 2009 — Two months into the war in Northern Yemen, one of the last functioning hospitals in the Saada governorate was directly hit by rocket fire last week and forced to close. It is urgent that a hospital be set up in a safe area allowing patients to access health care, said the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on Tuesday. MSF is ready to restart medical activities in the governorate as soon as possible.

In the north of Yemen, intense fighting has been ongoing for the past eight weeks. Since September 2007, MSF has worked in Saada governorate in northern Yemen. MSF staff currently provide medical care to the population affected by the 'Sixth War', the most recent of a series of violent outbreaks that began in 2004 between government forces and members of the opposition group Al Houthi. Andrés Romero, MSF’s head of mission in Yemen's capital, Sana'a, describes the evolution of MSF’s activities in the area.

MSF has been providing emergency care to war-wounded since fighting resumed recently in Saada Province, in northwestern Yemen. Four weeks ago renewed fighting began between the Yemeni army and the Al Houthi rebels in Saada Province. Violent clashes have been frequent, mostly around Saada City, along the Saada-Baqim road, and farther west around Haydan and Malaheed.

In the north of Yemen, what is being referred to as a "sixth war" between the army and the Al Houthi rebels began on August 11. Once again the population is subjected to violence and deprived of health care. MSF is providing medical care to the wounded and assisting the displaced as much as the security conditions allow.

Since May 5, fighting has occurred nearly every day in Razeh, northern Yemen. For now, MSF has been able to continue working at the city hospital and has treated 41 war-wounded since that date.

The dead were among a group who had departed two days prior from the port of Bosasso, Somalia, fleeing insecurity or extreme poverty on a smuggler’s boat. They were travelling in extremely harsh conditions across the Gulf of Aden to reach Yemen.

Some 533 people survived the dangerous journey from northern Somalia across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen on smugglers’ boats during one week in December 2008. At least 28 passengers did not survive the trip. Desperate to escape the violence and hopelessness of Somalia, these passengers routinely arrive on Yemen’s southern coast after a two- to three-day journey. The risks they have taken to get there are huge: smugglers pack more than 100 people onto boats made for 30; and passengers arrive with reports of brutal treatment.

Human smugglers from northern Somalia forced 114 people from a small fishing boat near the village of Al Qashaah on the southern coast of Yemen early on the morning of December 5. The passengers were Somali refugees fleeing war, destitution, and disease. Among them were ten children, including babies.

Since early Monday, December 1, of a presumed 420 people who have arrived on Yemen’s shores after traveling through the Gulf of Aden from Somalia, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has assisted 361.

Every year, thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians risk their lives crossing the Gulf of Aden to Yemen. Hoping to escape the conflict and extreme poverty in their own countries, these desperate passengers are regularly abused and sometimes killed by the brutal smugglers they pay to get them across.

November, 1, 2008, Awhar, Yemen --A team from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) assisting refugees in the south of Yemen found 39 dead bodies on the shore between Friday, October 31 and Sunday, November 2.

Madrid/New York, September 10, 2008 —Refugees and migrants, they had escaped from conflict and extreme poverty in the Horn of Africa by trying to cross the Gulf of Aden. The survivors tell of their dangerous journey at the hands of brutal smugglers.

One month ago, war returned yet again to the governorate of Saada, with numerous clashes involving heavy weaponry. For the time being, access is impossible, but there is reason to suspect the area contains injured people.

Thousands of people risk their lives every year to cross the Gulf of Aden to escape from conflict, violence, drought and poverty. 

Madrid, June 19, 2008 — Thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians risk their lives every year to cross the Gulf of Aden to escape from conflict and extreme poverty. The trip is fraught with danger, as people are exposed to violence from smugglers and receive little assistance upon their arrival in Yemen.

Every year, thousands of people risk their lives crossing the Gulf of Aden: Somalis fleeing the fighting in their country and Ethiopians leaving because they cannot find work back home, for political reasons, or because of the conflict in the Somali region. Conditions of the voyage are terrible and on almost every crossing people die. This year alone an estimated 28,000 people arrived at the along the coast of Yemen, with 651 confirmed dead and another 659 missing. The actual death toll is probably much higher.

Barcelona, December 17, 2007 - A Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) team assisting refugees and migrants who cross the Gulf of Aden encountered 56 bodies near Arqa on the Yemeni shore on Saturday, December 15.