13,000 pregnant women without care in Yemen’s Taiz
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Sowetan
More than 13,000 pregnant women are without essential care in Taiz, Yemen, where fighting and access restrictions are increasing the risks of miscarriage and birth without assistance. Only five of the 27 facilities designated for maternal and neonatal emergencies are still operating partially, according to the United Nations Population Fund.
More than 13,000 pregnant women are without essential care in and around Taiz, Yemen, where fighting and access restrictions are increasing the risk of miscarriages, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), cited by Reuters on Tuesday.
The city has been largely cut off for a month. Fighting is preventing the delivery of humanitarian supplies and the movement of civilians, while Houthi forces are blocking supply routes, including the Taiz-Aden corridor. The UN estimates that about half of the 300,000 people displaced by the latest fighting in Yemen are in the city.
UNFPA expects about 1,500 obstetric emergencies among the 6,400 displaced pregnant women. Only five of the 27 facilities designated for maternal and neonatal emergencies are still operating partially. Essential health services have been disrupted for about 147,000 women and girls of reproductive age, said Francesco Galtieri, UNFPA’s representative in Yemen.
At the Yemeni-Swedish Hospital for Maternity and Childhood, Taiz’s main maternal care facility, daily births have fallen from about ten to five. Fuel shortages have put most incubators out of service. More than 800,000 people in and around Taiz have been without food aid since early October, according to the World Food Programme. Galtieri warned that the hospital could close if access restrictions are not lifted in the coming days.
