Yemen’s health system could collapse in some areas, minister warns

Yemen’s healthcare system may not be able to support the population as war strains resources, minister tells Al Jazeera.

Some areas in Yemen could suffer from a complete loss of health services if a decline in funding continues, Yemen’s Minister of Public Health and Population Qasim Buhaibeh has told Al Jazeera.

He said that the health sector may not be able to absorb additional waves of displacement from the ongoing war while a lack of resources has forced the closure of health facilities and caused shortages of medicines, supplies and fuel.

Buhaibeh added that emergency services, maternal and child healthcare, vaccination and nutrition services, as well as dialysis and cancer treatment, are all particularly threatened by the decline in funding.

He noted that health data updated through June 2026 indicates that 19.3 million people in Yemen require health assistance, while funding for the response has reached only 17 percent of the required amount.

Buhaibeh said that the proportion of health facilities operating at full capacity has likely dropped to less than 50 percent. The World Health Organization had cited 60 percent.

The minister cited figures indicating that 134,550 people have been displaced by the war between June and September 22, with most of them being in Taiz, Lahij and Aden. He said the influx of displaced people has placed additional pressure on health facilities that were already struggling with limited resources.

Buhaibeh said the reporting of health data from Houthi-controlled areas has been suspended for nearly a year, preventing authorities from forming a complete nationwide picture of the epidemiological situation.

Additionally, Buhaibeh warned that displacement, malnutrition and low vaccination coverage are coinciding with outbreaks of cholera, measles and polio.

He noted that more than 27,000 confirmed measles cases were recorded in 2025 and that around half of Yemen’s children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has found that nearly 130,000 people, or 30,000 households, have been displaced across seven governorates in Yemen since fighting escalated between the Iran-backed Houthis and the internationally recognised Yemeni government coalition forces in early September.