MSF: Children can't wait - funding cuts worsen Yemen's paediatric care crisis

29 April 2026 - In Yemen's northern Hajjah and Hudaydah governates, shrinking humanitarian funding and the withdrawal of services is leading to the closure or reduction of health services, leaving families with fewer options for care. As nearby facilities become less available, parents are increasingly travelling longer distances to reach hospitals supported by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders, often only arriving when their children’s conditions have already become critical.

Across the country, humanitarian organisations that once supported primary health centres and referral facilities are scaling back or suspending services due to funding shortfalls and operational constraints. In parts of Hajjah and Al Hudaydah, cuts have already forced some providers to halt activities or reduce services, leaving facilities understaffed and short of essential supplies.

For families in Abs and Al Qanawis, the impact is immediate. Abs has a population of more than one million people, and patients often arrive from areas with little access to basic care, frequently in advanced stages of illness. In Al Qanawis, even routine services remain out of reach for many, who cannot afford or access alternatives.

“Our teams are seeing a pattern of newborns and paediatrics arriving at our facilities in advanced stages of illness. As funding for healthcare shrinks, access to early diagnosis and treatment becomes more limited meaning many of these conditions could have been detected and treated in time before becoming severe, ” said Iris Gonzales, MSF Paediatrician in the Abs project.

For many families, reaching care now requires hours of travel as nearby health facilities have closed or are no longer fully functional. These delays often mean that conditions which could have been treated earlier becomes more critical by the time patients arrive.

Alongside the time required to reach care, the financial cost of seeking treatment has also increased. Families often need to pay for long-distance transport, fuel, or multiple connections to reach the nearest functioning facility. For some households, these expenses come in addition to other indirect costs, such as accompanying caregivers losing a day’s income or having to arrange emergency transport at higher rates.

“To come to the hospital is not an easy thing. Let alone the expensive transportation cost which we cannot afford most of the time. The clinic nearby closed a while ago, and the remaining ones do offer services but far too expensive for us, ” explained Jumaa, a mother and caretaker.

Yemen's ability to prevent and control infectious disease outbreaks has been weakened. This creates a dangerous environment where illnesses that are otherwise preventable or manageable can spread rapidly and widely, disproportionately affecting children, whose developing immune systems make them more vulnerable to infection and severe outcomes.

Abdul Aziz, MSF Medical Coordinator for Yemen, said, “When healthcare budgets are cut, one of the first areas to be affected is disease prevention, vaccination campaigns slow down or stop, surveillance systems become less effective, and community health outreach is reduced. As a result, diseases like acute watery diarrhoea and measles can circulate with far less resistance."

Acute watery diarrhoea has been a recurring crisis in Yemen, fuelled by contaminated water and damaged sanitation infrastructure. Without sufficient funding, efforts to prevent new infections become more difficult, including maintaining treatment capacity and ensuring adequate supplies such as oral rehydration salts and IV fluids. At the same time, reduced investment in water and sanitation programmes further undermines efforts to control the spread.

MSF teams are providing medical care and supporting emergency responses to outbreaks such as acute watery diarrhoea and measles, helping to support an already overstretched health system that is further strained by funding cuts.

In 2025, MSF teams at Abs general hospital has admitted more than 4,300 paediatric cases, compared with 3,526 cases in 2024, which is an increase of over 20%. The increased admissions are coupled with a higher number of critical cases, suggesting that children are arriving later and in more severe condition, likely reflecting reduced access to timely primary healthcare and delays in seeking treatment.

MSF teams provide free emergency treatment, inpatient care, and referrals for the most vulnerable children. “We are seeing the consequences of funding cuts in real time,” said Denis Oyori, MSF Head of Mission in Yemen. “When frontline clinics close, hospitals like ours become the last option. Restoring support to primary healthcare is essential to prevent avoidable deaths among children.”

Across both Abs general hospital and Al Qanawis mother and child hospital, neonatal admissions totalled 5,138 cases including cases of respiratory tract infections, sepsis, measles, while 3,927 cases were treated for malnutrition.

Sustained support from humanitarian organisations is essential to keep life-saving child healthcare services operating in Yemen. Without predictable and continuous funding, hospitals and treatment centres struggle to maintain staffing, medical supplies, and outreach services that are critical for early diagnosis and treatment. This is particularly important for conditions such as malnutrition, infections, and neonatal complications, where delays in care can quickly become life-threatening.

MSF is calling for donors to restore and sustain funding for essential child health services in Yemen, ensuring that care remains accessible closer to communities rather than only in distant or overwhelmed facilities. Strengthening and maintaining this support helps reduce preventable deaths by allowing children to receive timely treatment before conditions become critical.

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