Over 520 medical facilities destroyed in Saudi-led attacks on Yemen, senior health official tells Press TV

A senior Yemeni health official says more than 500 medical facilities have been destroyed as a result of attacks by the Saudi-led coalition waging a devastating military campaign against the country.

Dr. Najeeb Khalil al-Qabati, the spokesman for the Health Ministry in Yemen’s National Salvation Government, told Press TV on Wednesday that the Saudi-led alliance and their allied militants are responsible for the destruction of 523 hospitals in Yemen.

He added that more than 100 ambulances have also been badly damaged because of the Saudi-led aggression, and that over half of all health facilities in war-torn Yemen are now closed, while medicine is urgently needed.

Qabati said Saudi-led attacks and acute fuel shortages due to a tight blockade on the entry of oil derivatives have turned the conflict in Yemen into the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.

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One Yemeni child dies every five minutes

The high-ranking Yemeni heath official further highlighted that the plight of children remains grim, with one child under the age of five dying every five minutes of preventable causes. 

The figure means over 300 Yemeni children continue to lose their lives on a daily basis, he said.

Qabati added that one Yemeni woman is dying every hour of hunger and diseases that are easily preventable and treatable.

Malnutrition is on the rise, with close to 2.8 million children under the age of five suffering from severe acute malnutrition. The closure of Sana’a International Airport is also affecting millions of patients in need of medical care abroad, he said.

Qabati went on to say that more than 3,000 Yemeni children suffer from congenital heart defects, besides another 500 with renal failure who need kidney transplant surgeries abroad.

The top Yemeni health official added that more than 27,000 patients have been registered with inflammatory diseases – examples of which include allergy, asthma, autoimmune diseases, coeliac disease and hepatitis.

He confirmed that 93 percent of the equipment and instruments in Yemeni hospitals and health centers have exceeded their life span, calling on the international community and freedom-loving nations to intervene immediately and secure an end to the Saudi-led aggression, a complete removal of the sea and air blockade on Yemen, and the reopening of Sana’a airport as well as the western Yemeni port of Hudaydah.

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Qabati also said a virtual conference held by the United Nations and co-hosted by Sweden and Switzerland earlier this month fell far short of its aid goal for Yemen, and that participating governments and donors have not yet offered any humanitarian assistance to the Sana’a-based National Salvation Government.

Ansarullah rejects any political, military precondition for Saudi-led siege to be lifted

Meanwhile, the Houthi Ansarullah movement has dismissed any political and military preconditions for the Saudi-led blockade of Yemen to be lifted.

Mohammed Abdul-Salam, spokesman for the popular movement, wrote in a post published on his Twitter page on Wednesday that “the entry of oil derivatives, foodstuff and medical equipment is a humanitarian and legal need for Yemeni people.”

“We will never accept any military or political preconditions for the siege to be raised,” he underscored.

Saudi Arabia, backed by the US and its other regional allies, launched a devastating military campaign on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing government of Yemen's former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadiback to power and crushing the popular Ansarullah movement.

Yemeni armed forces and allied Popular Committees have, however, gone from strength to strength against the Saudi-led invaders, and left Riyadh and its allies bogged down in the country.

The Saudi-led military aggression has so far resulted in nothing, but the killing and wounding of tens of thousands of Yemenis, as well as the displacement of millions of deprived people, destruction of infrastructure, famine, starvation, and the spread of infectious diseases in Yemen.

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