Sana’a – IOM, the United Nations Migration Agency, provided Yemen’s Ministry of Health with five fully equipped ambulances to be deployed in Hudaydah.

With the intensifying of fighting around Hudaydah city, large scale displacement has taken place in the past four weeks. IOM along with other UN agencies dispatched medical teams, distributed Non-Food Items and shelter kits, as well as food to various locations, and to Migrant Response Points (MRP) servicing stranded migrants.

The intense fighting brought many desperate Yemenis to IOM’s MRP seeking the simplest of needs such as food, water, and medical assistance and a safe exit from Hudaydah.

IOM is also providing Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) with psychosocial support. 

According to UN partners, more than 120,000 persons are displaced while 80,000 persons were assisted with food, emergency kits and lifesaving support. Health facilities in Hudaydah governate are closing due to the security situation; others had to suspend operations due to the displacement of many medical staff along with their families and locating to safer areas.

Most stores and shops have closed, leading to scarcity of basic commodities including medical, emergency supplies and ambulances.

Last month, IOM dispatched four medical doctors to three healthcare facilities in Hudaydah and one mobile medical team – consisting of an ambulance and one doctor with three nurses.

The five equipped ambulances arrived on 4 July. Upon receiving requests for aid from the Ministry of Health, IOM was able to quickly procure the vehicles and prepare them for medical operations.

The ambulance hand-overs were supervised by IOM Yemen Officer in Charge, Hazim Torlic, who met Dr. Mohammed Hajar, Director General of Emergency in the Ministry of Health.

“We felt the need to respond to the request of the Ministry of Health and make sure that it can have adequate equipment to help those in needs.” said Hazim Torlic.

Also this week, IOM Yemen Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) and the National Authority for the Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Response (NAMCHA) entered into a formal cooperation agreement to work towards a systematic approach for assessing and reporting on internally displaced persons, returnees and the presence of migrants.

This agreement opens up data collection coverage countrywide for DTM teams and will contribute to better understanding and regular reporting of the mobility patterns in Yemen, an IOM official said.

For more information, please contact:  IOM Yemen, Saba Malme, Tel: + 967 736 800 329, Email: smalme@iom.int