Hodeidah calm after clashes force patients and staff to flee hospital

Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah was relatively calm yesterday after sustained clashes on Sunday between government forces and Houthi rebels in several areas.

The fighting took place near the main hospital, forcing patients and staff to flee and causing substantial damage to the building.

“Projectiles and shrapnel fell on the roof and destroyed the hospital’s water tanks,” Dr Khaled Suhail, executive director of Al Thawra hospital, told The National.

Several patients were injured as fighting raged around the building as female staff were moved to safety, Dr Suhail said.

Heavy fighting was also reported near Hodeidah’s university, in the 7 July district and Al Khamseen Street on Sunday.

Dr Suhail said three children were among the four people taken to the hospital with injuries caused by falling shrapnel from anti-aircraft shells. The hospital also treated fighters from both sides but declined to provide figures. About 110 rebels and 32 loyalist fighters were killed on Sunday, Agence France-Presse reported.

Dr Khaled Atiya, the hospital spokesman, said the cardiac care room was damaged and a patient seriously injured when shrapnel pierced the roof.

“Very intense clashes flared up near the hospital and the anti-aircraft fragments were falling heavily,” Dr Atiya said.

“The shrapnel destroyed the front doors and some rooms in the hospital. I saw patients carrying their intravenous drips running out of the hospital to find shelter.”

Dr Suhail said the situation around the hospital was calm yesterday with fewer patients arriving for treatment, but female staff would not yet be asked to resume work.

“We used to receive more than 2,000 patients a day but the number dropped as the fighting approached the hospital,” he said.

Dr Atiya said Al Thawra was the main hospital for Hodeidah and three neighbouring provinces.

“The hospital receives patients from Mahwit, Raymah and Hajjah and injured fighters from all the conflict parties,” he said.

“We are providing humanitarian service so we strive to keep neutral.”

Dr Atiya said the hospital was also dealing with an increase in cholera patients after new outbreaks in some districts of Hodeidah province.

There have been more than 1,500 cases in the past two months.

“We receive large numbers of patients from Bura district in western Hodeidah and Al Zaydia in the north, which are experiencing a massive outbreak of cholera,” he said.

The disease surfaced in 2016, the second year of civil war in the country, as a result of crumbling health and sanitation infrastructure.

There have been almost 250,000 suspected cases and 246 deaths this year, the World Health Organisation said.

The outbreak is part of a wider humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Yemen, including widespread malnutrition, which has prompted an international push for a new round of UN-brokered peace talks before the end of the year.

Fighting between the Iranbacked Houthi rebels and government forces backed by the Saudi-led Arab Coalition flared up around Hodeidah at the beginning of this month.