New York: Yemen's health system is ‘breaking’ as renewed fighting drives the highest level of displacement since a 2022 truce, the United Nations said on Friday.
More than 138,000 people, including over 70,000 children, have been displaced since the start of August, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said.
Nearly 3,000 pregnant women among those displaced have limited or no access to lifesaving care, with about 200 expected to give birth this month, he added.
Children face worsening conditions, Dujarric said, noting that UNICEF mobile nutrition teams screened nearly 2,900 children in recent weeks, and more than one in four were found to be acutely malnourished. More than 200 suffered from severe acute malnutrition.
Only three out of five of more than 5,400 health facilities assessed by the World Health Organization were fully functioning, Dujarric said.
Yemen's civil war between Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces and Iran-backed Houthis has sharply escalated after it had largely been frozen under a 2022 truce.
Violence has flared along old front lines in recent weeks, including around the southwestern city of Taiz, as the Houthis swept south along the Red Sea coast, prompting a humanitarian crisis with more than 133,000 people displaced and some fleeing to Africa across the Red Sea.
