WHO: Child Preventable Diseases Resurge in Yemen as Vaccination Campaigns Decline
The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that Yemen is facing a significant decrease in child immunization rates, and routine vaccination campaigns cannot reach millions of children in the war-torn country. In a statement, WHO reported a substantial decline in child immunization rates in Yemen due to the continued economic deterioration, decreased income, displacement, overcrowded living conditions in camps, and an overstressed healthcare system. The preventable diseases and child deaths in Yemen have risen due to the decline of the vaccination campaigns. According to the 2022 estimates of national immunization coverage by the World Health Organization and UNICEF, around one-third (27%) of children under one year in Yemen have not been vaccinated against measles and rubella. The war in Yemen broke out in 2015.
The United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, emphasized on Wednesday the crucial need to reach a political solution to the Yemeni crisis to fulfill the aspirations of the Yemeni people for peace and to end the war. He engaged in a series of meetings with Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, the United Nations, and other senior officials from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). Grundberg stressed the pressing need for a political solution to the Yemeni crisis, emphasizing the importance of the international community and Security Council member states working together in a concerted effort to bring Yemenis closer to the just peace they aspire to achieve.
Ahmed Bin Daghr, the President of Yemen's Shura Council, said Wednesday a just and lasting peace in Yemen requires a clear commitment from the Houthi group to the three references, aiming to end the nin-year-old war. The three references are the Gulf Initiative, the outcomes of Yemen's National Dialogue Conference, and the relevant UN Security Council resolutions. This statement came during bin Daghr's meeting with the United States Ambassador to Yemen, Seven Fagin, to discuss the general situation in Yemen and the region in light of recent political developments. The state-run Saba News Agency said bin Daghr briefed the U.S. Ambassador on the current situation in Yemen.
The U.S. military is taking new steps to protect its troops in the Middle East as concerns mount about attacks by Iran-backed groups, and it is leaving open the possibility of evacuations of military families if needed, officials told Reuters. The measures include increasing U.S. military patrols, restricting access to base facilities and hiking intelligence collection, including through drone and other surveillance operations, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have been repeatedly targeted since the Israel-Gaza conflict began on Oct. 7. Last week, off the coast of Yemen, a U.S. warship shot down more than a dozen drones and four cruise missiles fired by Iranian-backed Houthis.
The main UN aid agency in besieged Gaza warned it will have to stop operations by the end of Wednesday because it is running out of fuel as Hamas said the death toll from Israeli strikes had surged by more than 700 in a single day. Israel has cut off impoverished Gaza's usual water, food and other supplies, and fewer than 70 relief trucks have entered since the war started — "a drop of aid in an ocean of need," warned UN chief Antonio Guterres. Israel has bombed Gaza in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas militants who, while firing a massive rocket barrage, killed more than 1,400 people and took 222 hostages on October 7, according to Israeli authorities.
