Recent fighting in Yemen has displaced tens of thousands of people, causing health care needs to soar.
As fighting escalates in Yemen, the growing number of injured people is putting pressure on a health system already stretched thin. In response, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been supporting health facilities and reaching people through mobile clinics. Here are five things to know about the current situation in southern Yemen.
- What is happening in Yemen and on its western coast?
In September 2026, Ansar Allah forces launched a rapid military operation on the western coast of Yemen, seizing strategic areas like the city of Mokha and the Bab al-Mandab Strait. The incursion has reached the vicinity of the third-largest city in Yemen, Taiz, with roads and access to the south blocked.
The internationally recognized government in Aden, backed by Saudi Arabia, announced a counter-offensive on October 5, and fronts are reported to be progressing toward Bab al-Mandab and Dhubab. Today, territorial control remains unclear.
This escalation has led to a significant influx of displaced people fleeing the captured areas across the west coast. It also further increases the needs of people who are already grappling with years of conflict, humanitarian crisis, and extremely high levels of acute malnutrition, cholera, acute watery diarrhea, measles, and other communicable diseases.
- What is the humanitarian situation in Yemen?
Across Yemen, more than 22 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian support and around 5.2 million people are displaced, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
This latest escalation is taking place against the backdrop of an already severe and chronically underfunded humanitarian crisis in the country. More than 200,000 people have been displaced due to insecurity in the past month, according to the UN. As MSF teams have observed in recent mobile clinics, displaced people have had to undertake very long journeys across desert lands to reach safer areas, often on foot and amid high temperatures and limited access to food and shelter. Many have settled around Lahj governorate and on the outskirts of Aden.
Many of those displaced are in critical need of medical and humanitarian support, including access to water and sanitation in the schools, mosques, and other informal spaces where people have taken shelter. The risk of waterborne diseases like cholera is increasing rapidly under the current conditions.
The ongoing escalation is adding new pressure to an already overstretched medical system. Access to health facilities has been affected by the resumption of hostilities, as they have less capacity to respond to the ever-increasing needs.
- What are the most pressing medical needs in Yemen?
Food insecurity and the loss of livelihoods are leading to an increase in malnutrition cases, while cholera is on the rise and access to health services and referrals is limited.
In the many camps across Lahj and Aden governorates, 70 percent of the patients treated by MSF mobile clinics are women and children. People arrive with skin infections, fever, diarrhea, and communicable diseases, as well as foot injuries and ear and eye infections caused by their long journeys. Our teams have seen displaced people who cannot find shelter in host communities or camps sleeping under the shade of trees or on the road.
- How is MSF responding in Yemen?
MSF is focusing on ensuring the continuity of care, while supporting health authorities in responding to increased medical and humanitarian needs. Medical needs were already very high in Mokha before the escalation; many of women arriving in labor at Mokha General Hospital have been malnourished.
We continue to support pediatrics and maternity services at Mokha General Hospital, where we received 567 patients between September 10 and October 6 in the emergency department, and assisted in 45 deliveries. At the MSF-supported primary health care center in Khokha, north of Mokha, medical teams are providing an average of 130 to 160 consultations per day, with 2,122 patients seen in triage during the same period. The cholera treatment unit has also been reactivated in the health care center in Khokha.
In early September, we pre-positioned emergency medical kits in the two primary health care centers in Khokha and Mafraq al Mokha, as well as in Dhubab’s primary health care center. Up until now, our teams have not been treating trauma injuries directly.
In response to the needs of displaced people, we operated mobile clinics across Aden and Lahj governorates with 775 total consultations since September 15, while 20 children were diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition. Teams are carrying out assessments across southern Yemen to identify camps and improvised settlements where people have limited access to health care.
To support the health authorities in their response to the emergency, capacity building activities are ongoing at Ibn Khaldoun Hospital in Lahj, and four trauma kits were sent to Taiz hospitals. MSF is also providing support for trauma services in the emergency department of Al-Jumhouria Hospital in Aden, and making donations.
We continue to assess ways to adapt our operations to respond to the emerging needs.
- What more can be done to help people in Yemen?
An urgent and rapid scale-up of the humanitarian response is needed to address acute and growing needs. Displaced people are living in dire conditions and urgently need food, water and sanitation, shelter, and essential items.
Humanitarian organizations and authorities must ensure and expand access to health care for the people affected by the crisis. Displacement, insecurity, and overstretched services are leaving many unable to reach urgently needed care. Civilians and health care must be protected at all times.