The United Nations Population Fund warned of worsening humanitarian conditions for women and girls in the city of Taiz and its surroundings in Yemen, due to escalating combat operations between the Yemeni army and the Houthi militia, pointing out their lack of basic services and increasing threats to their lives, including violence, exploitation, and forced marriage.
The UN News Centre quoted the Fund’s representative in Yemen, Francesco Galtieri, during a briefing for journalists in Geneva via video link from Aden, stating that the intensity of fighting has reached levels not seen in the country since 2020, noting that the number of displaced people has tripled in the Western Coast and Taiz, reaching approximately 300,000 people, half of whom are women and children.
6.2 million women and girls lack protection
Galtieri clarified that approximately 6.2 million women and girls lacked basic protection services before the recent escalation, warning that displaced women face increasing risks including gender-based violence, abuse, harassment, exploitation, and forced child marriage. The UN official highlighted the situation of girls in conflict areas, citing the story of a 14-year-old girl who lost her mother, and whose father decided to marry her to an older man out of fear for her safety in case he was killed in the fighting.
Deterioration of maternal and child health services
In the health sector, Galtieri pointed out that only five of the 27 hospitals designated for emergencies related to maternal and newborn health in Taiz are still partially operational, while more than 13,000 pregnant women lack basic services, with an estimated 1,500 of them expected to give birth in the coming two weeks. He noted a deterioration at the Swedish Hospital for Maternity and Child Health, where the average number of daily births dropped from ten to five, and the number of functioning infant incubators decreased from 40 to ten due to fuel shortages.
UN aid for over 182,000 people
In the context of the humanitarian response, Galtieri explained that the UN’s rapid response mechanism, led by the United Nations Population Fund, managed to reach over 182,000 people and activate five new mobile emergency teams for reproductive health and addressing gender-based violence. He added that the Fund sent 55 tons of medicines and supplies for maternal health, sufficient to support approximately 120,000 pregnant women in affected areas over the next four to six months.
Galtieri reiterated UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s call to de-escalate, protect civilians, and ensure the safe, sustainable, and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid. Last month, the Rights and Freedoms Monitoring Organization warned of worsening humanitarian and health conditions in the city of Taiz due to the continued blockade imposed on the city by the Houthi militia, and the closure of supply routes threatening the lives of thousands of patients amid shortages of fuel, medicines, medical supplies, and water.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
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