‘Breaks my heart’: Yemen jab shortages spark fears for millions of children
Some five million Yemeni children are deprived of essential routine vaccinations amid disputes.
Mirsal Adel, 47, had never struggled to find vaccines for his children. In his hometown of Ibb, in southwestern Yemen, public hospitals and paediatric clinics always provided them free of charge.
But when it came to vaccinating his fifth child, a four-month-old boy, securing a shot was far from straightforward.
“I visited the hospital more than once, and I was told that UNICEF, which used to provide the vaccines, stopped supplying them, with no word on when they might arrive,” said Adel.
“Since UNICEF halted its operations in Sanaa for political reasons, they stopped supplying us with vaccines,” he added. “Furthermore, because we live under a blockade by Saudi Arabia, we cannot import them ourselves.”