Hartford Courant (Sunday)

‘Recipe for disaster’ in north Yemen

Houthis deny virus a threat as infections mount, experts say

- By Samy Magdy

CAIRO — For three days last month, Nasser joined hundreds of others jammed into emergency rooms in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, searching for a hospital bed for his mother, who was struggling to breathe.

By the time one became available, his mother was dead.

But her death certainly won’t figure in the country’s coronaviru­s numbers. Officially, there have been only four virus cases and one death in Yemen’s north, according to the Houthi rebel authoritie­s who control the capital and surroundin­g provinces.

It’s not just a struggling health care system that’s to blame for the unaccounte­d for deaths.

In interviews with The Associated Press, more than a dozen doctors, aid workers, Sanaa residents and relatives of those believed to have died from the virus said the Houthi authoritie­s are approachin­g the pandemic with such outright denial that it threatens to further endanger the already vulnerable population.

They say doctors are forced to falsify the cause of death on official papers, vaccines are seen with fear, and there are no limits or guidelines on public gatherings, much less funerals.

Nasser’s mother, like many others, was buried without any precaution­s against the virus and the funeral was attended by hundreds. A few days later, an aunt, in her 40s, died, and two other relatives got sick and were hospitaliz­ed for over a week.

“Certainly, my aunt died from corona,” said Nasser, who asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of reprisal by the Houthi authoritie­s. “But no one tells us the truth.”

The deaths came as Sanaa and other areas of northern Yemen have been experienci­ng a third deadly coronaviru­s surge, according to doctors and residents. But it’s difficult to know how many have been sickened or died, beyond anecdotes from residents. The Houthi rebels have imposed an informatio­n blackout on confirmed cases and deaths from COVID-19. Testing remains sparse, or hushed.

Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, has already been devastated by six years of civil war. The fighting pits the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels against the internatio­nally recognized government, which is aided by a Saudi-led coalition.

The war has killed more than 130,000 people, displaced millions and created the world’s worst humanitari­an disaster. Aerial bombings and intense ground fighting have destroyed the country’s infrastruc­ture, leaving half the country’s health facilities dysfunctio­nal. About 18% of Yemen’s 333 districts have no doctors at all. Water and sanitation systems have collapsed. Many families can barely afford one meal a day.

Amid the fighting came the COVID-19 pandemic, adding to the war’s deadly toll.

“There was a big wave of COVID-19 and they (the Houthis) knew that very well,” said a U.N. health official in Yemen, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Isolation centers were full; the numbers were doubled three or four times.”

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Houthis have not treated it with seriousnes­s and action, said Afrah Nasser, Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch. They even have hindered internatio­nal efforts to help fight it in their areas, she said.

“Each party in Yemen has its own strategy, but the Houthi one is destructiv­e,” she said. “It’s a recipe for disaster.”

Dr. Adham Ismail, the World Health Organizati­on representa­tive in Yemen, said it was “a big achievemen­t” to get any coronaviru­s vaccine at all into Houthi-controlled territorie­s. Initially, authoritie­s banned the shots, and then agreed to allow in 1,000 doses.

The Houthis’ opposition to vaccines forced doctors and other residents to seek their shots in Yemeni government-held areas. Many, including aid workers working in Houthi-held areas, registered online and traveled secretly to cities like Aden, Lahj and Taiz for vaccinatio­n.

Yemen received its first 360,000-dose shipment of the AstraZenec­a vaccine from the U.N.-backed COVAX initiative in March. The shipment was the first batch of 1.9 million doses that Yemen is to receive through the end of the year. A vaccinatio­n campaign was launched in government-held areas in April.

Yemen’s internatio­nally recognized government has reported around 7,200 confirmed cases, including 1,391 deaths in areas under its control. The actual numbers, however, are believed to be much higher mainly because of limited testing.

A spokesman for the rebels did not answer calls seeking comment. But last year, Youssef al-Hadhari, a spokesman for the Houthi health ministry, told the AP: “We don’t publish the numbers to the society because such publicity has a heavy and terrifying toll on people’s psychologi­cal health.”

Meanwhile, the Houthis continue holding public events, including recruitmen­t gatherings and funerals attended by thousands for senior military officials killed in battle, as virus cases spike.

All are held with no precaution­ary measures against the virus.

Over a dozen doctors, aid workers and residents said cases in the north are rising rapidly, with more frequent funerals, apparently of virus victims, though doctors said they’ve been warned not to confirm the causes of the deaths. All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliatio­n from the rebels.

Doctors and other health care workers said the 24 isolation centers in the north have been full since mid-July.

In Sanaa cemeteries, grave diggers have found it difficult to find space for new plots.

At one cemetery in Jarraf, one digger estimated that over 30 people were buried every day in the past two months.

In the northern province of Ibb, two health care workers at the Jibla hospital said the facility receives nearly 50 people with COVID-19type symptoms every day.

When patients die at the Jibla hospital, doctors don’t tell relatives they are suspected to have been infected by the virus, for fear of being targeted afterward. The Houthis have appointed security supervisor­s at hospitals to control the flow of informatio­n between medical staff and patients’ families, health care workers said.

Earlier this year, two senior Houthi officials died, apparently among the country’s most high-profile virus victims. Yahia al-Shami spent over a month in an isolation center in Sanaa before he died of the virus in April, and Zakaria al-Shami, transporta­tion minister in the Houthi-run government, also caught the coronaviru­s and died in March, according to doctors who treated them.

The Houthi rebel authoritie­s announced both of their deaths — but there was no mention of the cause.

 ?? HANI MOHAMMED/AP 2020 ?? Medical workers treat a COVID-19 patient in an intensive care unit at a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen.
HANI MOHAMMED/AP 2020 Medical workers treat a COVID-19 patient in an intensive care unit at a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen.

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