Renewed Fighting Threatens Healthcare in Yemen as Health System Struggles to Cope

Renewed fighting in Yemen has led Marib General Hospital to temporarily suspend maternity and obstetric care, as an influx of trauma patients placed the hospital under severe strain and the number of deaths passed what its morgue could hold, the World Health Organization's regional office for the Eastern Mediterranean reported on 10 September 2026.

Marib, a city in central Yemen whose population has swelled from around 500,000 before the war to more than 2 million because of years of displacement, is one of three areas under strain: hospitals in Hadramaut, Yemen's largest governorate in the east, and Taiz, a city and governorate in the southwest, are facing the same crush of trauma cases, diverting staff, beds and supplies from other patients.

More than 35,000 people already displaced by earlier fighting, living across three camps, are now at serious risk of injury and further displacement because of the latest escalation.

The fighting lands on a health system already failing to keep up with the rest of Yemen's crisis.

WHO said 19.3 million people in the country need health assistance this year, but funding gaps mean only 7.3 million, about four in ten, have been prioritised for the most urgent care, and just 18 percent of the money needed for the Health Cluster's 2026 response has come in.

The shortfall is worst in northern Yemen, under Houthi de facto authorities, where 90 of the 105 districts marked as priority areas are located.

Cholera transmission is also continuing: Yemen recorded 6,625 suspected cases and 8 deaths between 1 January and 9 August 2026, well down from 2025 levels, but the disease remains an additional pressure on the country's already strained health system.

Source:WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (WHO EMRO), 10 September 2026