What is the responsibility of doctors in Yemen?

Editor's note: This story was published on November 14 and has been updated to reflect a new commentary on Yemen published in The New England Medical Journal.

Three weeks ago, Sara, 10, was sitting in her bed in a hospital in Hodeidah, Yemen. A small hole in her throat helped her breathe.

She was recovering from a rare bacterial infection, called diphtheria. The bacteria had paralyzed part of his body. And Sara was so sick for one reason: the civil war in Yemen.

For three and a half years, both parties – the government backed by Saudis and Iran-backed rebels – have continuously used disease and famine as weapons of war, two doctors write on Wednesday. New England Journal of Medicine.

Doctors Louise Ivers and Amir Mohareb of Massachusetts General Hospital write in the commentary health professionals who can no longer remain silent and let these atrocities happen.

"The rules of war, which protect health facilities, are being broken," Ivers told NPR. "International conventions guarantee that medical organizations can do their job [in war zones]. Violations of these conventions should be of concern to everyone, to their future. "

Throughout the civil war, both sides attacked hospitals, pharmacies, water treatment plants and sewage systems. Doctors Without Borders reported that 39 hospitals had been bombed during the first seven months of fighting, although the charity provided GPS coordinates of these facilities to both sides of the war. At the same time, troops blocked key ports, preventing aid, fuel, drugs and vaccines from entering the country.

As a result, diseases such as cholera and diphtheria have developed and spread. The medical staff had to flee. And 14 million people are on the verge of starvation.

In the commentary, Ivers and Mohareb call on doctors around the world to advocate for a comprehensive ceasefire and to urge the United States to stop providing Saudi Arabia with weapons and a logistical support.

"Health workers are in a really unique position to stand up and say, 'We understand what's going on here, we understand that diseases, like diphtheria, do not just happen out of nowhere. caused by gross negligence of war rules or deliberate attempts to interrupt health care structures, "says Ivers." Physicians have a collective responsibility to act. "

Every 10 minutes, a child dies in Yemen of a preventable disease, according to the United Nations. More than 400,000 children are starving. Another 1.5 million people are suffering from acute malnutrition and need help to survive.

"Yemen has become a hell for millions of children," said UNICEF Regional Director Geert Cappelaere. "Today, every boy, every girl in Yemen is facing extremely dire needs."

Now, Cappelaere – with the leaders of the United Nations and the World Health Organization – fears that the help that saves lives is in danger.

Just days after Cappelaere left the hospital, the fighting in Hodeidah became so severe that health workers could no longer access the hospital. Many patients, including Sara, were quickly evacuated.

And this violence threatens to block the arrival in Yemen of food, medicine and other supplies, warned Monday the US Secretary General Antonio Guterres on France Inter radio.

With a major harbor on the Red Sea, the city of Hodeidah is a lifeline for humanitarian aid in Yemen. According to the World Health Organization, 85% of the country's food products generally pass through this port.

"If the port of Hodeida is destroyed, it could create an absolutely catastrophic situation," Guterres said.

That could push 12 million people – the number of Yemenis already close to starvation – to the brink, says Suze van Meegen, protection and advocacy advisor in Yemen for the Norwegian Refugee Council.

"We would look at death on a very, very large scale," says van Meegen.

For this reason, the UN, UNICEF, WHO and many other humanitarian organizations call for an immediate ceasefire.

"Not next week, not in three weeks," says van Meegen. "We need everyone to lay down their weapons and come back to the table to find a real solution, not a violent solution."

The Trump administration echoed this same sentiment two weeks ago. State Secretary Mike Pompeo wrote in a statement that peace talks should begin this month.

At the same time, the United States continues to sell billions of dollars worth of weapons to the Saudis. And until it stops last week, the United States helped refuel Saudi planes used in the war in Yemen.

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