Armies of Liberation

So what happened? The Health Ministry stole the real vaccines for resale in private pharmacies or never bought them in first place? Its very hard to donate anything to Yemen; monetary donations disappear by the sixth journal entry and even well intentioned physical donations (like to the victims of the Hadramout flood) are diverted for resale. Corruption in the Heatlh Ministry has an immediate lethal impact, just ask anyone with diabetes.

Yemen Observer: The Supreme National Association for Combating Corruption (SNACC) council approved Tuesday the withdrawal of an amount of fraudulent vaccine. The vaccines, which were to help prevent children’s illness such as the flu and malaria, were tampered with and then distributed on May 31 in eight governorates. After receiving reports that the vaccines were not in presentable containers, the authority approved their withdrawal from the markets.

The decision came after the SNACC reviewed reports from field teams sent to a number of governorates in response to the shipment of 400,000 doses of vaccines sent to the Ministry of Health stores on May 5, 2010.

The reports assured that the amounts were distributed to the Capital Secretariat, Sana’a, Taiz, Hajjah, Ibb, Dhamar, Amran and al-Mahwait governorates, noting that some of amounts were closer to damage of the powder.

According to the documents, the amounts of the vaccines sent to Yemen are approximately 611 doses costing $1,847,260. Sources say that the Ministry of Health bears 40 percent of the cost of the shipment.

Update 8/11 SABA: Around 9,065 suspected dengue fever cases were registered in several provinces in the country, according to a report discussed on Tuesday by the cabinet.The report of the health minister confirmed 1,798 affected cases with the fever, recommending to continue the routine check up on mosquito that transmits the diseases.

Original Post: The Health Ministry routinely ignores or denies outbreaks of disease, too busy stealing donated medicine for sale in private pharmacies, I guess. Al Sahwa

Sahwa Net- Saudi doctors told Sahwa Net the measured followed up in Yemen to combat Dengue Fever are unproductive and merely a waste of money. They said awareness campaigns should be intensified about mosquito breeding grounds and nessessary procedures to early diagnoses of Dengue Fever must be taken. A Yemeni official medical report has revealed on Monday the increase of Dengue Fever inflicted cases in Shabwa governorate, pointing out that the cases discovered mounted to 131 and that more that there are more than 1100 suspected cases of Dengue fever. (Read on …)

An article covering the press conference is available here at the National.

SEYAJ Organization for Childhood Protection
Summary of press conference on victims of mines and explosive remnants of war
Child land mine victims urgently need medical treatment

May 31, 2010

SEYAJ detailed the horrendous apathy toward children and women who are victims of land mines and explosives in the northwestern province of Saada. Desperate their desperate medical condition, these victims are neglected and lack of access to medical care, even in the minimum standard by provided by hospitals and health centers.

The director of SEYAJ said at a press conference in Sana’a on Monday, May 31, 2010 that the injured had been expelled from the hospitals. The mattresses were pulled from beneath them and they were asked for money for their stay although they received no medicines. The shrapnel was not extracted from their bodies, despite that their injuries were received more than two months in most cases.

The victims of land mines live in harsh humanitarian conditions in the capital Sana’a, where they were not admitted to government hospitals, contrary to the directions of the president and the decision of the Minister of Public Health and Population that required treatment for all victims of war at the expense of the state. (Read on …)

In 2006, I wrote an article ( A Day in the Life of a Failing State) about a chickenpox outbreak in a remote village and how devastating it can be. There was some progress since (after one of the Dar al Hadeth Sheiks reversed his position that vaccines are a Zionist plot), but in Sa’ada, there are tens of thousands of children who were born since 2004 that have never seen a doctor. The following from IRIN

SANAA, 19 April 2010 (IRIN) – A 12-day measles and child polio vaccination campaign began on 17 April in parts of the troubled northern Yemeni governorate of Saada, targeting over 209,000 children, health officials say.

All under fives in seven of the governorate’s 15 districts will be vaccinated against both measles and polio. Those aged 5-15 will be vaccinated against measles, Hinbush Hussein Hinbush, head of the Public Health and Population Office (PHPO) in Saada, told IRIN.
(Read on …)

Seyaj’s contact info and the Arabic version below the fold. Related Saba news article here.

Press Release: A letter to the Minister of Interior about the trafficking of kidneys

Seyaj organization for childhood protection demanded the Minister of Interior to bring a number of detainees including citizens from Arab nationalities to the prosecution and justice on the charge of trafficking in human organs of Yemeni citizens including children. (Read on …)

The second most malnourished child population in the world is going to lose aid from the World Food Program unless donors step up to the plate.

YEMEN: Food crunch warning for July

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) Date: 07 Apr 2010

Aid organizations are warning of a food crisis in Yemen unless international food aid funding is dramatically increased before June 2010.

The World Food Programme (WFP) says it has only received a quarter of its annual budget for 2010 (US$25.6 million out of $103.2 million), and will run out of food for 3.2 million people by the end of June. (Read on …)

What is that, about 400K US? And the story is the Health and Education Ministries withdrew the 400K for salaries from a bank in Zanzibar, Abyan and were driving back when they were highjacked and robbed, and no one could call the nearby military camp because the phone lines were cut by the state earlier in the month. There was an earlier bank robbery in Aden.

Yemen Observer Unknown gunmen seized a car carrying the salaries of the Education and Health Ministries in Loder District in Abyan on Wednesday in the biggest armed robbery operation. (Read on …)

This is from the guy who said women cant talk and remember at the same time. At least I think thats what he said because I can’t remember now that I’m talking. Sheik Zindani has a new statement that nine is a fine age to marry and any one who supports a ban on child rape is an apostate. Its not a small thing in Yemen to be takfired, and it comes with a level of risk. First though, the news that a 13 year old child died from bleeding four days into her marriage. The tragedy reminds me of the 12 year old who died in childbirth after four days of painful labor.

WaPo Some of Yemen’s most influential Islamic leaders, including one the U.S. says mentored Osama bin Laden, have declared supporters of a ban on child brides to be apostates.

The religious decree, issued Sunday, deeply imperils efforts to salvage legislation that would make it illegal for those under the age of 17 to marry.

The practice is widespread in Yemen and has been particularly hard to discourage in part because of the country’s gripping poverty – bride-prices in the hundreds of dollars are especially difficult for poor families to pass up. (Read on …)

al Shawa (GT)

Continue and dengue fever epidemic of death lives of hundreds of default under the province Tazvi clear government efforts to combat it, which reflects the lack of a sense of responsibility and a disregard for the lives of citizens. (Read on …)

Whats new in Yemen? Dengue Fever in Taiz. The outbreak has become much worse as deaths mount. Its another example of how corruption kills. Just as dialysis patients in Yemen are slowly murdered by the incompetence and thievery of the Health Ministry, the outbreak of Dengue is taking lives at an alarming rate. The problem is multifold: neglect, a criminalized and hyper-political ministry, and incompetence.

When there is a horrid outbreak of disease in Yemen, one thing can be counted on, the Health Ministry does not spring into action. Multiple outbreaks of screw worm disease were largely ignored until the WHO got involved. The bureaucratic structure of Yemen is based on tribalism and nepotism, leading to a lack of accountability and the exclusion of talented, hard working yet unconnected individuals. There are many individuals within the Ministry who really care, but they are over powered and over ruled by lazy, untouchable fat cats.

Vaccines are cheep and saves lives. But saving lives is not a priority in the governmental budget; the military is. The expenses of the Parliament and Presidency take about 20% of all government funds. Even the normally manageable chicken pox can cause an inordinate number of fatalities in rural areas. Further, infant mortality from tetanus is very high when widespread vaccination of mothers would remedy the issue. Tetanus vaccines cost about $1.50 per dose, yet a mountain of infants have died from the disease. (Read on …)

I’m speechless. These kids are IN the camp and theres not enough food or medicine apparently to save them. Imagine the families sheltering outside the camps without any support whatsoever. They must be starving to death even quicker. More than half of Yemeni kids are stunted from malnutrition on a good day. Those in the war zone and suffering the government’s blockade on food are extremely vulnerable. This article also has a good wrap up of Saudi troops fighting on Yemeni soil and the Saudi fatwa on the Yemeni rebels.

Yemen Times SA’ADA, Nov. 18 — Yemeni and Saudi forces continue their ground and aerial strikes against Houthi strongholds in the districts of Malahidh, Shada, Razih, Maqash, Hassana, and nearby villages. Houthis said that the Saudi army launches airstrikes and rockets while the Yemeni army fires mortar shelling and Katyusah missiles, plus intensive air raids on villages and farmlands stretching over 60km along the Yemeni-Saudi border. A Saudi official source said their troops used F-15 and Tornado jets, Apache fighters and heavy mortars in attacking Houthi hideouts.

Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz said on Monday that the kingdom’s territory were cleared of Houthis, and clashes between Houthis and Saudi troops are taking place on Yemeni soil. (Read on …)

The shortage of medicine for the effected civilian population has been a characteristic of the Sa’ada Wars since 2004.

Violating health facilities closed in Jawf
JAWF, Nov.16 (Saba)- Health and Population office in Jawf governorate has closed more than twenty pharmacies and a private health facility after they violated laws.

The closures came within a unique campaign conducted by the office aimed at closing all the unlicensed drug stores whereas some of them were suspected to provide the Houthis with medicines and tonics.

General manger of The Healthcare in the province Shiekh Hasan Abuhadrah, said that the office had approved a new mechanism in coordination with the security authorities for medicine transportation from the capital to Jawf that guarantees the legal use of them.

He also pointed out that a joint committee would be formed to check up the private health facility medicines.

Higher rates than Africa and North Korea, Yemeni kids are the second most hungry child population in the world:

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Nearly 200 million children in developing countries suffer from stunted growth and health problems due to poor nutrition in their early years, the U.N. children’s foundation UNICEF said on Wednesday.

However, the percentage of children with retarded growth in Asia fell to 30 percent last year from 44 percent in 1990, and in Africa to 34 percent from 38 percent over the same period, UNICEF said in a report…

“More than one third of children who die from pneumonia, diarrhea and other illnesses could have survived had they not been undernourished,” she said.

UNICEF said that countries with the highest prevalence of stunted growth among children under the age of five include Afghanistan (59 percent), Yemen (58 percent), Guatemala and East Timor (both 54 percent), Democratic Republic of the Congo (46 percent) and North Korea (45 percent).

The 1,000 days from conception until a child’s second birthday are the most important for growth and development, the report said. Insufficient nutrition during this period can permanently harm the body’s ability to ward off and overcome diseases and damage a child’s social and mental development.

Stunted growth, UNICEF said, can rarely be corrected. However, Veneman said it can be prevented and programs to improve access to iodized salt and vitamin A supplements in Africa and Asia have improved the situation in some countries — and led to a reduction in infant and child mortality.

Who bombs a hospital? What made the Yemeni military think it was “abandoned”? MSF had just withdrawn their personnel days earlier.

CP: SAN’A, Yemen — Yemeni warplanes killed at least 44 Shiite rebels in a series air strikes near the Saudi border, a senior government official said Sunday. The insurgents, however, claim the dead were civilians. (Read on …)

SEYAJ PRESS RELEASE: 12 Year Old Girl Dies in Childbirth

On Friday, September 11, 2009, the girl child (Fawzia Abdullah Yusuf) aged 12 years died of complications in childbirth.

SEYAJ confirmed that Fawzia of Hodeidah Governorate died after days of hard labor. She had been transferred to the hospital where doctors were unable save her life.

Fawzia left school in the fourth grade and was married at 11 years of age. Her family suffers from severe poverty and her father has renal failure. At the age of 12, she conceived a child.

According to the SEYAJ volunteers, such incidents occur repeatedly and many young girls in the region die from early childbirth. However, there is little statistical data because the deaths are not monitored and documented.

The absence of laws in force settings the minimum age of marriage makes local officials were powerless to prevent the marriage of children, especially female, or to punish their parents and avert the catastrophic consequences of early marriage.

The SEYAJ organization for the protection of children
Sanaa – Saturday September 12, 2009

********
منظمة سياج لحماية الطفولة- اليمن
SEYAJ Organization for Childhood Protecting
Yemen-Sana’a- New University Sq.
Phone:009671228184
Fax:009671228145
Mobile:00967712020332
Hotline:009671257505
PO Box:5642
E-mail: info@seyaj.org
Website: www.seyaj.org

Overview

Update: Yemen Times

Al-Qadasi was the head of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Science and Technology Hospital in Sana’a, when he was attacked by a group of 18 tribesmen in January of this year.

He was stabbed by the sons and relatives of patient Ahmed Al-Maflahi, 85, after he informed their family of his death. His assailants stormed into the hospital and threatened the unarmed security staff, before finding Al-Qadasi and stabbing him with a jambiyya knife.

Tawfiq Al-Maflahi pinned down Dr. Al-Qadasi while his brother Yusif stabbed him in the back, causing him fatal injuries in his right lung and main arterial vessels.

Despite four operations, fellow doctors were not able to revive him and he died three weeks later.

Following the incident, doctors in both government and private hospitals in Sana’a, Taiz, Dhamar and Ibb went on a strike for weeks to protest against the attack and demand the attackers be brought to justice.

After huge pressure from physicians, activists, and the general public, the authorities arrested Tawfiq Al-Maflahi and four other involved in the murder.

Al-Qadasi’s family, relatives and friends have held protests every Tuesday in front of the cabinet demanding the arrest of main killer Yusif Al-Maflahi, but to no avail.

Although Yusif Al-Maflahi holds an American passport, rumors say that he still lives in Sana’a under the protection of a prominent sheikh.

The Funeral March for Dr. Derhem

There are many tragedies in Yemen, and throughout the world. Few are more pointless than the brutal murder of Dr. Derhem al Qadasi, stabbed to death by tribesmen in the hospital following the death of an elderly patient. The perpetrators are known, (and are on video) yet remain free due to influential connections, compounding the injustice.

I’ll never forget the description by MSF (Doctors Without Borders) of rushing to send an ambulance for several badly injured women during the last round of the Sa’ada war, and then the doctors got turned back at a checkpoint. The bleeding people knew the ambulance was turned back and that no help was coming, and several died before the morning. While thinking about Yemen in large strategic abstractions is complicated, its painful to think about individuals and what their next ten minutes holds – hungry, without water or shelter, possibly injured, bombs randomly dropping. If there’s currently 120,000 internal refugees, then by Yemeni demographics, we are talking about nearly 100,000 children. So kudos to the UN and WHO for moving quickly with the medical supplies. The following update is from UN.org Now the doctors and medicine have to get in. Really all the donors have to insist, every person with a shred of humanity in the GPC has to take a stand. This can’t go on.

18 August 2009 – The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) is rushing medical assistance to northern Yemen, the scene of recent violence pitting Government forces against rebels.
The agency has sent medicine and supplies to treat people who have sustained injuries during the fighting, which media reports say has lasted a week in the mountainous region of Saada. Further supplies will be sent to the area next week.

A senior WHO emergency health officer has been dispatched from Cairo, Egypt, and is set to visit the conflict zone shortly, said spokesperson Paul Garwood. WHO is waiting for confirmation of casualty figures, and is working with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on a joint health and nutrition response to the current emergency.

I have a lot of posts entitled “Corruption Kills” and these normally deal with the Health Ministry and stolen donated equipment, counterfeit drugs sold in stores owned by Ministry officials, the shortage of dialysis machines (there was some shipment that was cancelled) and rural outbreaks entirely ignored by the ministry, so the fact that they are shaking down the NGO’s now is not surprising. The religious incitement against medical workers in Sa’ada is spread from mosques run by pro-government hard core Salafis associated with General Ali Mohsen. The following article is from the Yemen Times:

SANA’A, Aug. 2 — The Ministry of Public Health and Population met with international NGOs working in Yemen’s health sector last week to introduce them to the new terms and conditions aimed to accelerate the achievement of Yemen’s Millennium Development Goals.
(Read on …)

ISRIA

Yemen – Most pesticides coming to Yemen for Qat
Qat tree is behind importing tons of illegal pesticides yearly to the country, said General Manager of Agricultural Guidance Department Dr. Mansour al-Aqel.

He made it clear that Qat consumes 80 percent of imported pesticides while the other 20 percent are used for agricultural crops topped by cucumber. But he affirmed that other agricultural crops (like wheat) do not contain pesticides. (Read on …)

Half of Yemeni children are stunted from malnutrition. That’s a stat from 2006, things are much worse now. A third of Yemenis are malnourished, and children suffer the most. However corruption, economic monopolies, wars and the diversion (and sale) of aid are among the most detrimental factors impacting Yemenis.

World Food Programme appeals for $23 million to help Yemenis women and children 9. July 2009

The World Food Programme (WFP) issued an urgent appeal on Tuesday for $23 million in “financial support from international donors for food aid to Yemen specifically targeted at women and children,” AFP/Google.com reports. (Read on …)