UN Population Fund says over 13,000 pregnant women lack essential healthcare in Yemen’s Taiz

More than 13,000 pregnant women in Yemen’s Taiz region lack essential healthcare as intensified fighting disrupts medical services, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) warned on Tuesday, raising concerns over the possible closure of the city’s main maternity hospital, Anadolu reports.

Francesco Galtieri, UNFPA’s Yemen representative, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Aden that nearly 300,000 people have been displaced since August, with displacement from the western coast and Taiz tripling.

He said more than half of those displaced are women and children, while women head 33% of displaced families.

Of the 27 designated emergency maternal and newborn hospitals, only five remain partially functional, leaving more than 147,000 women and girls of reproductive age with severely restricted access to lifesaving services.

Among those affected are 1,500 pregnant women expected to give birth within the next two weeks, according to the representative.

At Taiz’s main maternity facility, daily deliveries have fallen from 10 to five, while operational incubators have dropped from 40 to 10 because of fuel shortages.

Galtieri warned that the UNFPA-supported Swedish Motherhood and Childhood Hospital in Taiz could close unless access restrictions are lifted within days.

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He said 75% of protection services have been suspended because of funding shortages, access difficulties and staffing constraints.

“No woman should have to risk her life simply because she is giving birth to a new life in a war zone,” he said.

UNFPA has reached more than 182,000 people with emergency assistance, but Galtieri stressed that safe humanitarian access remains urgently needed.

“Currently, we are starting to see major issues with safe drinking water as well as with food,” he said, noting that malnutrition is evident, and the number of pregnant women who are living just on “a cup of tea and maybe some rice every day” is increasing.

Galtieri said delivering essential supplies remains challenging because Yemen’s mountainous roads are difficult for trucks to navigate, particularly when transporting bulky humanitarian supplies.

Yemen has been mired in conflict since 2014, when Houthi forces seized the capital, Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention in March 2015 in support of the internationally recognized government.

The conflict has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, leaving millions of people dependent on humanitarian assistance. The latest fighting began in July after the collapse of a truce arranged in 2022.

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