The Republican Teaching Hospital Authority in the capital, Sana’a, held a press conference on Sunday to highlight the repercussions of the Saudi blockade, which it said has continued for 12 years, and its severe humanitarian impact on patients with chronic diseases.
Dr. Amin Qabbas, head of the Supreme Authority for Medicines and Medical Supplies, said the Saudi blockade and the closure of Sana’a International Airport have prevented large quantities of medicines and medical supplies from reaching Yemen, particularly drugs requiring specialized transportation and refrigeration. He said chronic disease patients have been left to suffer as essential medicines become unavailable or arrive after prolonged delays.
Qabbas noted that the blockade has caused severe shortages of critical medicines, including anesthetics and emergency drugs, while the withdrawal of several international pharmaceutical companies has further aggravated the crisis. He said shipments have often been diverted to Djibouti, with some medicines reaching Yemen only after expiring or being damaged because of inadequate storage conditions.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Ashwal, deputy head of the Republican Teaching Hospital Authority, stressed that the healthcare sector is ultimately about human lives and the right to treatment, medicine, and medical care—not merely buildings, equipment, and statistics.
He said patients with chronic conditions are particularly dependent on uninterrupted care: kidney failure patients require regular dialysis sessions, cancer patients need treatment on schedule, while those suffering from heart disease, diabetes, and other conditions depend on continuous access to medication.
According to Al-Ashwal, the 12-year blockade has placed enormous additional pressure on Yemen’s healthcare system, making it increasingly difficult for hospitals to secure medicines and medical supplies at a time when the number of patients and the scale of healthcare needs continue to rise.
He said the Republican Teaching Hospital continues to provide medical and humanitarian services despite severe challenges and limited resources. However, he stressed that sustaining medical services requires a reliable supply of medicines, functioning medical equipment and supplies, and qualified personnel working in a stable healthcare environment.
Al-Ashwal particularly highlighted the critical shortage of anesthetic drugs, warning that their absence can force hospitals to postpone urgent surgical procedures and disrupt lifesaving medical services. He stressed that no surgical operation can be performed safely without adequate anesthesia supplies, making the availability of anesthetics, emergency medicines, intensive-care drugs, and other medical supplies essential to protecting patients.
He added that patients face burdens extending beyond the hospital, including the cost of obtaining medicines and traveling for treatment, while their families endure mounting psychological and financial pressures. These hardships are particularly severe for kidney failure and other chronic disease patients, for whom treatment is a continuous necessity directly linked to their survival.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Health and Environment and read at the conference by ministry spokesman Dr. Anis Al-Asbahi said the Saudi blockade had created an unprecedented health catastrophe over the past 12 years, compounded by acute shortages of lifesaving medicines, particularly insulin and anesthetics.
The statement said millions of Yemenis suffer from chronic shortages of essential medicines. It cited approximately 1.5 million diabetes patients in need of insulin annually, while supplies of several essential drugs—including long-acting insulin, medicines for hemophilia and bleeding disorders, heparin, growth hormone, immunoglobulin, albumin, and medicines for thalassemia—remain severely inadequate or unavailable.
The ministry said the decline in the role of humanitarian organizations had turned treatable chronic illnesses into what it described as “deferred death sentences” for millions of Yemenis.
It further said that, despite repeated appeals to the United Nations and international organizations working in the humanitarian and health sectors, those organizations had failed to fulfill their humanitarian and ethical responsibilities and had instead become complicit in depriving millions of Yemenis of basic necessities of life.
The ministry said patients are now forced to wait weeks or months for a single dose of essential medication, with many losing their lives to diabetic coma and kidney failure. The closure of Sana’a International Airport has also forced insulin to be transported by land, disrupting the cold chain and driving some patients to purchase expired or counterfeit medicines on the black market.
The shortage of anesthetics and resuscitation drugs, the statement added, has made even routine surgical procedures increasingly dangerous and led to the suspension of critical and lifesaving operations, including open-heart and cancer surgeries. It has also weakened hospitals’ ability to treat emergency and critical cases in intensive-care units.
The ministry also said the suspension of humanitarian support had resulted in the freezing of more than $48 million allocated for medicines and medical supplies in a single year, in addition to $16.3 million for operational expenses and $14.1 million for medical equipment. Therapeutic and preventive nutritional supplies had also reportedly been halted at more than 3,000 health facilities serving over one million children.
The Ministry of Health accused humanitarian and international organizations of reducing their operations not because of a lack of funding, but as part of what it described as a deliberate policy driven by Saudi and U.S. pressure to push Yemen’s healthcare system toward collapse. It said health-response implementation had fallen from 19 percent in 2019, despite donor funding, to less than 5 percent in 2025 and to virtually zero in 2026.
According to the ministry, the World Health Organization and UNICEF suspended support to two-thirds of the targeted areas in November 2025, threatening the closure of thousands of health units and disrupting nutrition and disease-control programs. The International Committee of the Red Cross reportedly delivered 130,000 insulin ampoules but did not maintain sufficient support, while the International Organization for Migration supported only seven health facilities—efforts the ministry said were insufficient to compensate for the absence of a comprehensive response.
The statement also said the closure of Sana’a airport had reduced medicine imports by 60 percent and prevented thousands of patients from traveling abroad for treatment. Meanwhile, the economic blockade and inflation have contributed to currency collapse and soaring prices, turning essential medicines into a luxury beyond the reach of many poor families.
The ministry condemned what it described as a policy of deliberate delay and collective punishment by the United Nations and its agencies, particularly the World Health Organization. It said withholding medicines, medical supplies, blood-bank materials, and intravenous solutions was not merely a logistical failure but a humanitarian and moral crime that had turned humanitarian institutions into instruments of political pressure and coercion.
The ministry held the World Health Organization fully responsible, legally and morally, for the deterioration of the health situation, arguing that its silence and reliance on inspection procedures could not justify what it described as a catastrophe that the organization itself has characterized as “one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.”
It called for the immediate release of all detained shipments of medicines, medical supplies, intravenous solutions, blood-bank materials, laboratory supplies, and diagnostic reagents; an immediate end to what it described as arbitrary inspections and delays; and an end to the use of Yemenis’ health as a political bargaining tool.
The ministry also called for the full and sustained reopening of Sana’a International Airport to facilitate the delivery of medical aid, guarantees for the free movement of aircraft transporting medicines and blood-bank supplies, and immediate international guarantees allowing medical assistance to reach all Yemeni governorates without discrimination or delay.
The ministry concluded by reminding the international community, the United Nations, and its agencies that their obligations under international humanitarian law require them to protect civilians rather than punish them, warning that Yemen’s medicine crisis is not a temporary shortage but what it described as the deliberate collapse of the country’s healthcare system, leaving millions of lives caught between the absence of essential medicines and the withdrawal of humanitarian support.
