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20 TIME December 11, 2017 REPORTAGE BY GETTY IMAGES
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was intercepted near Riyadh’s King
Khalid International Airport. Within
48 hours, the coalition imposed a
total blockade on a country already
on the brink of starvation. Two-
thirds of the population in Yemen is
dependent on humanitarian aid. The
blockade of air, sea and land ports—
still largely in effect at November’s
end—threatens to turn a crisis into
a catastrophe.
Compounding the lack of basic
supplies is a drastic shortfall in
the availability of health care as an
outbreak of diphtheria has appeared;
cholera has already killed more than
3,000. More than half of Yemen’s
medical centers have closed. The
medical personnel who have not
deserted have worked for months
without hope of payment. Ghassan
Abou Chaar, head of mission in
Yemen for Doctors Without Borders,
says this—and not merely the
famine—is the great threat to the
country. “We can have programs
worth €100 million to distribute
food, but if we don’t have doctors,
it’s useless.”
Yet some remain. At a public
hospital in the town of Ibb on Nov. 7,
Dr. Ali Audi engaged in a grim
attempt at triage. Every day, his
teams sort through their patients to
conserve resources. Only the most
serious cases—and only those for
whom something can still be done—
are kept under observation. Lately,
the number of patients has been
decreasing. This is not good news.
The blockade caused the price of gas
to soar, meaning people in remote
areas can no longer get to the hospital.
Instead, they are dying at home.
“Even when families arrive here with
a child between life and death, they
can’t afford shelter or food for the
duration of hospitalization,” says
Audi. “They end up leaving with their
child after three days.” They usually
know, he said, that the child will
not survive. Boys and men inspect the
site of an airstrike in Sana‘a
on Nov. 11. Twelve homes
were damaged, with as
many people rescued from
the rubble