Francesco Galtieri, the United Nations Population Fund representative in Yemen, warned Tuesday that a main maternity hospital in Taiz could close unless access restrictions are lifted in the coming days. He spoke to journalists in Geneva by video link from Aden.
A United Nations News report said fighting in parts of Yemen has intensified to levels not seen since 2020, and that displacement from the west coast and Taiz has tripled. Nearly 300,000 people have been driven from their homes, more than half of them women and children. More than a third of the displaced families are led by a woman.
In the sites where displaced people arrive, women and girls face heightened risks of sexual violence, harassment, exploitation, and forced and child marriage, the report said. Those threats, layered on loss and uncertainty, are wearing down their mental and psychosocial health.
The report gave this account of a girl named Safa. She is 14. Her mother died earlier this year, she has no brothers or sisters, and a few weeks ago, as the crisis took hold, her father married her to an elderly man, afraid that if he were killed in the hostilities, no one would be left to protect her.
Galtieri said her words show how war can strip away protection at every turn. He said hers is a stark reminder of the impossible choices some families are facing and the devastating consequences, particularly for girls.
In Taiz city, midwives report that severely malnourished pregnant women are surviving on one or, at most, two meals a day. The report said miscarriages are rising and more women are giving birth at home, unsafely.
Of the more than 13,000 pregnant women in the Taiz area, some 6,400 have been displaced, the report said. Among those women, the Population Fund expects roughly 1,500 obstetric emergencies, caused by the toll of walking for safety while pregnant, carrying children and whatever could be saved. Galtieri said no woman should have to risk her life simply because she is giving birth to a new life in a war zone.
At the Swedish Motherhood and Childhood Hospital, the main maternal care facility in the city, the rate of survival is shrinking, the report said. Deliveries have halved, from 10 a day to about five. Incubators for premature babies are down from 40 to 10 for want of fuel.
Nighttime admissions have fallen to almost zero, because insecurity and shelling keep women from travelling, while health workers struggle to reach the wards. Unless access restrictions are lifted in the coming days, Galtieri warned, “the hospital itself could close”.
Across Taiz, only five of 27 designated emergency maternal and newborn hospitals are even partially functioning. Before this escalation, an estimated three women died in childbirth every day in Yemen, which has the highest maternal mortality rate in the Arab region.
The Population Fund and its partners are responding wherever access allows. Some 129 community midwives seek out pregnant women in the areas they cover, and five mobile teams deliver reproductive health and protection services.
Galtieri said the needs of women and girls are too often the first to be overlooked and the last to be heard. He said societies praise women’s resilience without standing by their side in any tangible way. “Their voices must not disappear behind the statistics of war.”