Tarek al-Salami, aged 7, sat in a diaper, looking frail. Normally, the malnutrition and diarrhea that weakened his tiny frame would have been treated within a few days, but nothing is normal in Yemen anymore.
Tarek’s father carried him on foot from the southwest city of Mokha as the Iran-backed Houthi rebels swept in this month, bringing the civil war that has embroiled Saudi Arabia, and nearly the United States last week, to the Red Sea coastal city.Β
Al-Salami reached a hospital two days later in the government-held city of Aden, 170 miles away, but there were no beds available. Like others, the facility was overwhelmed by the war-wounded. His family finally found a therapeutic feeding center.
He arrived in an acute health crisis after the delay in care, according to the center’s director, Dr. Arwa Atef, and he only began walking again Wednesday, over a week later.
“I swear to God, when I look at him, my heart breaks,” said his father, Mohammed al-Salami. “He looks almost lifeless.”
The already-fragile health system in the Arab world’s poorest nation is collapsing, caught in a new front of the Iran war.
Some health centers are turning pregnant women and others in need away to focus on trauma patients. Vulnerable children are filling incubators and sharing beds. Millions of people are affected by the fighting backed by two of the Middle East’s biggest powers, as the Iran-backed Houthis advance against government forces supported by Saudi Arabia. More than 130,000 people have fled their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration.
“We are in a very dangerous situation,” said Fahd al-Nazari, manager of the government health office in Taiz province, which has received most of the newly displaced. “Within a day or two, or a week at most, we might have to close down [some facilities]. In fact, some hospitals are already closed.”
CBS/AP
