Israel's Sanaa airport bombing sparks medicine crisis in Yemen

Sanaa and several other Yemeni cities are suffering dire medicine shortages due to months of Israeli attacks on Sanaa International Airport.

Israeli airstrikes this year have destroyed the Yemenia Airways fleet, resulting in all flights through Sanaa International Airport grinding to a halt.

The closure has sparked a major crisis in Yemen's pharmaceutical market, where there has been a sharp decline or even disappearance of many life-saving medications that were previously imported via Sanaa Airport, while the prices of other drugs in the local market have also skyrocketed.

The airport's effective closure has also drastically affected sick Yemenis in Sanaa seeking medical treatment at the sole international destination available to them - Amman, Jordan.

Prior to its closure, Sanaa International Airport was one of the only routes in and out of Yemen for around 80 percent of the population, with the country split between Houthi, government, and southern separatist forces. 

Khaled Al-Shaif, Director of Sanaa International Airport, told The New Arab's Arabic-language sister edition that the airport's closure has led to a major health disaster, especially for those relying on medicine for chronic and serious illnesses that require special packaging, refrigeration, and rapid delivery - facilities only available at the airport.

It is estimated that around 500 such medicines are now in short supply or unavailable in the market, including blood derivatives and endocrine drugs, immunomodulators, serums, blood thinners, resuscitation and anaesthesia medications, as well as certain laboratory and diagnostic solutions.

Al-Shaif explains that Sanaa Airport's closure is also affecting patients whose conditions cannot be treated inside Yemen due to a lack of medications, solutions, and medical equipment, all of which are results of the long-term damage to the healthcare sector caused by the blockade.

The medicine shortages and travel restrictions have resulted in deaths, including among the 3,000 Yemeni patients who used to travel abroad for medical treatment each month via the airport until it was bombed in May.

In these attacks, the airport's passenger terminal - including departure and arrival halls - was destroyed, while three Yemenia Airways aircraft parked on the runway were obliterated.

A fourth aircraft, which had just arrived from Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, was bombed at a later date.

Ibrahim Al-Shaabi, director of the Yemeni Medicine Bank, said delays in importing medications are having catastrophic effects on the pharmaceutical market and service organisations such as the Medicine Bank.

A patient who was able to access ten types of medications they needed is now barely able to obtain two, due to drug shortages.

Following the start of the conflict in Yemen in 2015, the country suffered from severe shortages of drugs and medical equipment due to the effective siege imposed on airports and seaports at that time.

These restrictions blocked access to key industrial components and supplies that left Yemen’s national pharmaceutical companies struggling to meet local demand for the limited range of medicines they'd been able to produce locally before the blockade.

A 2021 report by the Supreme Authority for Medicines and Medical Supplies in Sanaa stated that since 2015, around 240 types of medicines had disappeared from warehouses owned by the Ministry of Public Health and Population and from commercial markets.

The partial reopening of the airport following the truce agreement in April 2022 helped restore access to some medications - but this situation has been reversed by the airport's current closure.

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.