In Yemen: we must protect the cycle of life until the warring parties put down the guns
By Dr. Luay Shabaneh
I traveled to Yemen a few weeks after the United Nations Security Council adopted the first UN resolution on Yemen in more than three years of deadly conflict. The resolution, agreed in Stockholm last December, calls for the Hodeida ceasefire to be respected, since the city is a vital entry point for food and medicine for a country that has suffered immensely from the war since July 2015.
I had followed very closely the negotiations that led to this Security Council resolution, including reports on the various changes that were made to the language on humanitarian assistance in the consecutive drafts. As someone who has worked in politics, development and emergencies for over twenty years, I am always astonished at the ability of political negotiators to drop humanitarian requests first when the going gets tough behind closed doors. How can a passage on the growing threat of famine and the devastating impact of the conflict on civilians have been dropped, I wondered as I moved between Sanaa, Aden and Hodeida last week?
That particular passage on how the lives of civilian Yemeni men, women and children have been severely shaken, and at times taken, by the conflict should have been the opening paragraph of the resolution. Had I, or UNFPA, the UN reproductive health and rights agency sat in on these negotiations, we would have told thousands of stories about the resilience of Yemeni women and girls in the face of bombing, displacement and hunger. We would have described the numerous genius ways which these champions have devised to stay alive and protect their families. From taking up the responsibility of their household in the absence of men, to trying to find food to give the younger ones, sometimes at the expense of remaining hungry themselves, to trying to organize their communities to use available resources in the most efficient ways, these every day heroes would have kept the language on dire humanitarian needs in the resolution.
In Al-Thawra hospital in Hodeida, a city under siege, midwives are often obliged to expand their role in the absence of doctors. It was a stark reminder to me, of how war pushes medical structures and personnel to their limits. With almost half of health facilities in Yemen destroyed or disabled because of the conflict, one third of them providing reproductive health services, and with the departure of large numbers of doctors and nurses from the country, to be able to keep a hospital like Al-Thawra functioning is key to the survival of 750,000 women of reproductive age in Hodeida. UNFPA estimates that there are six million women of reproductive age in Yemen today.
In a population of 30.5 million, the UN estimates that 24 million need humanitarian assistance, and 10 million are suffering from extreme levels of hunger. One million of them are malnourished pregnant and lactating women. More than 10 percent of the Yemeni population is now displaced because of the war, living in conditions that make them vulnerable and exposed to violence of all sorts and that exacerbate harmful social practices, already entrenched in the Yemeni culture such early marriage, child pregnancy and discrimination. War not only takes lives; it also erodes social protection at the same speed as it erodes values. In such a broken system, women pay the highest price.
Ahead of the upcoming pledging conference on Yemen, I cannot advocate enough for the need to keep women safe and healthy, as the backbone of the Yemeni society. No adequate words can give justice to the thousands of Yemeni mothers whose mission right now is to stay alive and feed their young children.
These women are the starting point of the cycle of life, and I have now returned from my visit to Yemen convinced that we should not allow this cycle to be broken.
So while regional and international stakeholders scramble to keep the ceasefire while until they reach a longer term solution to the war in Yemen, it is essential to keep aid flowing into the various Yemeni cities. Can anything be done to curb the malicious effect of this war on Yemeni women? Yes, if only by continuing to receive lifesaving reproductive health services and medicines, the lives of many women can be saved. If a woman who needs a caesarian section can reach a functioning hospital, her chances of surviving, with her baby, can sky rocket. If a young mother is adequately nourished, she can breastfeed more regularly. This is the cycle of life, and we must preserve it.
Like in all conflicts, Yemeni civilians suffer without having had a say in the war. It is for these Yemeni men, women and children that we should all focus our efforts on helping them survive and be healthy. Ultimately, what every Yemeni wants is to go back a normal life without the constant fear of death and displacement. Until then, we, humanitarian actors should all help them stay alive.