Background
In Taiz City, a MSF Mother and Child Hospital was opened in November 2015. The area surrounding the hospital was populated by a high number of internally displaced people living in poor conditions. To better address their health needs and in order not to overwhelm the outpatient department of the hospital, a separate basic health care clinic had been established in the vicinity of the hospital, on 1 December 2015. The tented clinic was set up in an empty field in a residential neighbourhood where many internally displaced people had gathered. MSF considered this location to be a safe and appropriate place for the clinic as there were no obvious potential military targets nearby. Moreover, there had been no airstrikes, nor any fighting in the area in the months before the clinic was established.
As is routine for MSF in settings of armed conflict, the GPS coordinates of the MSF medical facilities had been shared with all parties to the conflict. The coordinates of the clinic were shared with the Saudi-Led Coalition (SLC) on 29 November and once again on the morning of 2 December following airstrikes approximately two kilometres from the clinic. The 6 x 5 metre tent was white and the roof was marked with a 2 x 3 metre flag with the MSF logo. The MSF team had several meetings with the relevant community leaders in the area and notified the authorities regarding the clinic prior to its start-up.
MSF saw approximately 150 patients on the first day of the clinic. On the day of the airstrike, the clinic actually closed early because airstrikes in the surrounding area had deterred patients from coming to the clinic.
MSF operations in Taiz today:
The situation in Taiz remains extremely serious, with some of the heaviest fighting in the country. MSF is running lifesaving medical activities on both sides of the frontlines in Taiz, where most hospitals have closed due to the conflict. In Al Houban neighbourhood, MSF runs a Mother and Child hospital where in August 2016, 458 deliveries were recorded and over 400 severely malnourished children were admitted to the therapeutic feeding centre. MSF also runs a trauma centre for war-wounded and trauma cases and covers referrals. In the enclaved city centre, MSF supports Al Jomhouri hospital for maternity services, Yemeni Swedish hospital for paediatrics, and is supporting the Emergency Rooms for both Al Thawra and Al Rawdah hospital. MSF is also providing medical supplies forthe emergency room and emergency operating theatre supplies to Khalifa Hospital in Al-Turba.
In Taiz alone, MSF has treated over 10,000 war wounded cases since July 2015, including 934 war wounded in August 2016 alone. Most of the wounded are coming from the city centre, where many civilians are caught in the middle of intense fighting, struggling for food and survival. The patients MSF sees in Taiz mainly suffer from injuries due to airstrikes, bomb blasts, shelling, gunshots, snipers and more recently landmines. Movement in and out of the city remains restricted and dangerous for civilians and humanitarian actors.