As the intensity of conflict has decreased in Aden, Yemen—and with it, a reduction of people facing violence-related trauma—Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has concluded our 12-year project at the Aden Trauma Center. We will now refocus our activities in Aden to provide medical care for people’s most pressing needs.
Providing advanced trauma care amid war
Over the past 12 years, MSF teams in Aden have treated and rehabilitated thousands of people severely injured by the war in Yemen, providing more than 65,000 emergency consultations and close to 68,000 surgical procedures. Most patients suffered from open fractures, burn injuries, or sustained injuries from gunshots and explosives.
As the conflict in Yemen deepened during the battle for Aden in 2015, activities at the Aden Trauma Center intensified. While teams at the center treated a mass influx of patients with severe war wounds, we also ran an advanced emergency post and surgical mobile clinics in the city to stabilize war-wounded patients and improve their chances of survival.
“The Aden Trauma Center has been the only specialized acute trauma hospital in the area and served as an epicenter for treating patients,” says Olivier Marteau, MSF deputy head of mission in Yemen. “Some of our patients came from very far places, sometimes traveling for days in difficult conditions to seek free medical care.”
In 2018, following the Hodeidah offensive, MSF teams increased the hospital's capacity from 86 to 104 beds to respond to another influx of war-wounded patients.
In 2020, conflict escalated in southern Hodeidah, while the hospital in Aden was receiving a high workload of severe trauma cases that required specialized, intensive, and multidisciplinary care.
Ryadh Mohammed Ahmed Saleh was among the patients admitted to the trauma center during this time. He is from Abyan, a governorate neighboring Aden, and was referred to Aden for a serious gunshot wound. At the Aden Trauma Ccenter, he received colostomy surgery, which saved his life.
“The gunshot wound was severe; I never thought I would be alive today,” says Ryadh. “When I got to the hospital, I was in excruciating pain. The doctors reassured me that I would be fine. Despite a few complications with the colostomy, I am grateful for my life today and for the medical support I received.”
To reduce the constant pressure on medical, logistics, and operational teams at the Aden Trauma Center, in 2018 MSF opened a trauma field hospital in Mokha, a city located between Hodeidah and Aden, as conflict escalated on the west coast of Yemen.
A beacon of hope for Yemenis struggling to access health care in a neglected area
View the timeline“From April to August 2020, the Aden Trauma Center received 493 patients from the front lines on the western coast, mostly injured by gunshots, landmines, or bombings,” says Marteau. “Around 20 ambulances per day were transporting patients from Hodeidah and the surrounding area to Aden, a six-hour drive to reach lifesaving health care.”
The opening of Mokha Hospital relieved the intense pressure on the Aden Trauma Center and allowed patients to be treated more quickly. On the other hand, it also enabled the trauma center to focus on more complex cases, and expand its admission criteria, including for road traffic accidents, other trauma-related injuries, and COVID-19 cases.
The only COVID-19 center for southern Yemen
After the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in April 2020 in Yemen, MSF opened the first and only dedicated treatment center for the whole of southern Yemen. For months, our teams faced immense challenges facilitating the entrance of supplies and medical equipment, while the disease spread very quickly.
“In the first weeks, we received hundreds of patients,” says Dr. Youssef Nagwan, who has been working with MSF in Aden since 2015. “Many arrived at the center already suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome. Our teams were working around the clock to provide the best treatment we could, but we were overwhelmed.”
In 2021, our teams saw a dramatic influx of critically ill COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization in Aden. After six years of war, Yemen’s health care system was diminished and the capacity to treat people in intensive care was limited. MSF started to provide support to the COVID-19 treatment center at Al Sadaqa Hospital, with the support of the Ministry of Public Health and Population.
Refocusing activities to meet new medical needs
In 2023, there was a further decline in political violence in Yemen, which dropped to the lowest level since the start of the current conflict in 2015, as the group Ansar Allah (also known as the Houthis) and the internationally recognized government maintained an unofficial truce since the end of the UN-mediated truce in October 2022. As a result, our teams in Aden saw a decrease in conflict-related trauma cases, while treating an increasing number of patients injured by domestic and road accidents.
MSF is now assessing the medical gaps and priority needs in Aden in coordination with the Ministry of Health. In 2025, MSF aims to refocus its activities in Aden to provide new medical services for people most in need.
MSF in Yemen
The medical and humanitarian needs in Aden and across Yemen remain high. MSF is committed to the needs of people in Yemen, where we have been working since 1986. Today, MSF teams work in 13 hospitals across 13 governorates, providing support to more than 12 health facilities across the country.
