At least 18 people, including five children, have died as a result of lack of oxygen at hospitals

Blockade ‘amounts to collective punishment of the civilian population’ - James Lynch

The Huthi armed group and forces allied to it are endangering the lives of thousands of civilians in Yemen’s southern city of Ta’iz by blocking the entry of crucial medical supplies and food over the past three months, said Amnesty International today.

All routes into and out of Ta’iz are controlled by the Huthi armed group and its allies, and restrictions on entering and leaving the city have tightened significantly during the conflict. Only al-Duhi crossing to the west of the city has remained open on an intermittent basis, leaving residents largely trapped inside.

Testimony gathered by Amnesty from 22 residents and medical staff living in Yemen’s third largest city paints an alarming picture of civilian suffering and hardship. Most of the city’s hospitals have shut down and the few that remain open are on the verge of collapse due to a lack of supplies. One resident’s new-born baby died hours after he was born because of severe oxygen shortages at the hospitals.

Ta’iz residents told Amnesty that members of the Huthi armed group and its allies have stopped civilians crossing checkpoints from bringing in fruit, vegetables, meat and clothes, as well as gas cylinders for cooking and oxygen cylinders destined for hospitals, in some cases confiscating the goods. International humanitarian law absolutely prohibits the blocking of medical supplies.

Amnesty spoke to five doctors in Ta’iz who said they are desperately in need of more anaesthetics, oxygen and surgical instruments to treat patients injured during ongoing fighting between Huthi and anti-Huthi armed groups inside the city. Only four local hospitals within the enclave remain functional, and even these open and close sporadically depending on whether they manage to obtain medical supplies, which in most cases have been smuggled in via a smuggling route over a mountain south of the city.

Doctors say that at least 18 people, including five children, have died as a result of lack of oxygen in recent months. The director of al-Rawdha hospital said they desperately needed oxygen cylinders for intensive care units and prenatal incubators. He said Rawdha hospital was no longer able to take in patients requiring intensive care or surgery due to a lack of oxygen. He told Amnesty:

“We receive 15 to 20 such cases every day. Today we received five, three of them died. They were all civilians seriously injured during indiscriminate shelling.”

He warned that another local hospital, al-Thawra was also running out of oxygen supplies.

According to the Ta’iz Medical Committee, a local group set up to help address the medical situation and reallocate supplies, before the conflict began the city’s hospitals required around 200-250 cylinders of oxygen per day. Today the four remaining operational hospitals have to share 20-30 cylinders between them, which are smuggled in across the mountains carried by donkeys. Average prices of smuggled oxygen cylinders have shot up from £14 to around £48.

Samar Ameen, an activist from Khadeer, in the west of Ta’iz, told Amnesty how members of the Huthi armed group confiscated a delivery of 34 oxygen cylinders destined for al-Thawra hospital in January. “They held the driver for three days. He told me that they humiliated him and pressured him to confess he planned to deliver the oxygen to opposition groups,” she said. Despite Ameen’s repeated attempts to retrieve the oxygen cylinders by presenting evidence to prove the oxygen supplies were intended for al-Thawra hospital, the armed Huthis refused to return them.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Shihabi took his new-born baby son to five different hospitals in December in a frantic search for oxygen but was unable to get the supplies needed to save his son’s life. He said:

“My son was 14 hours old when he died … When he was born the doctors told us he needed intensive care and oxygen because he didn’t have enough fluids. We took him to every hospital we possibly could before he finally died. I wanted to take him outside the city but there was no way out.”

Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director James Lynch said:

“The Huthi forces appear to be deliberately barring the entry of civilian goods, including vital medical supplies and food, fuelling a humanitarian crisis with devastating consequences for residents of Ta’iz. “Blocking humanitarian aid is a serious violation of international humanitarian law. Residents are effectively trapped within an enclave of Ta’iz and depriving them of basic necessities amounts to collective punishment of the civilian population.”

Food prices up to five times higher than previously

Around 80% of shops in the city are closed and the prices of smuggled goods have soared, with basic supplies now costing around four or five times the usual local rate. Many residents are struggling to afford food to feed themselves and their families. Even bread has doubled in price. Abdullah Ali, a father to six young children and a resident of the poor al-Sameel neighbourhood, told Amnesty:

“I am unemployed and there are no work opportunities so every meal is a struggle … We need at least one bag of roti [bread] to feed the household for one meal.”

In late January the World Food Programme, Médecins Sans Frontières and the Saudi Arabia-led coalition were allowed to make small aid deliveries into the enclave of Ta’iz, but local residents told Amnesty that the supplies were woefully insufficient.