Three warring groups fight over Yemen. Divisions have paralysed the health ministry's response to the pandemic
no daily news conferences about covid-19 in Yemen, no charts or maps or deluge of data. There are barely any tests. But there are bodies. Silently but steadily the virus has taken root in the Arab world’s poorest country. Its spread can be glimpsed in anecdotes from doctors and snippets on social media. In one city aid agencies say gravediggers work overtime to keep up with the dead, most of them middle-aged men.
Yemen was singularly ill prepared for a pandemic. Even now, after shipments of extra supplies, it has just 675 intensive-care beds and 309 ventilators, says the. Hospitals and clinics have been bombed throughout a five-year war between a Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis, a Shia militant group. Medical staff have fled the country, leaving one in six of Yemen’s 333 districts without any doctors. Millions of people cannot properly wash their hands because they lack clean water.
Doctors say more than 500 people have died recently in Aden alone, many with respiratory symptoms that look a lot like covid-19. They cannot know for sure: tests are scarce. As of May 30th Yemen had screened just 2,678 people for the virus, from a population of 28m. Some clinics have closed rather than treat people who may be infected.
On social media, though, Yemenis post stories of death: at least a dozen in the capital, dozens more in outlying provinces. Some families have been unable to bury their relatives, their bodies trapped in morgues by the Houthis. TheAid agencies have offered help. The World Health Organisation and other groups are shipping hundreds of ventilators, thousands of tests and other kit. But cash is short.
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