Houthi militias in Yemen have launched a fresh batch of extortive and tyrannical measures that target the health sector in areas under their control, healthcare workers in Sanaa reported on Thursday.
Local sources reported 110 medical facilities in the coup-held capital suffering from either total or partial shutdowns. The Houthi-styled Health Ministry enforced full closures on 86 health centers and put 24 facilities under a partial shutdown.
The practicing licenses of dozens of health facilities were also revoked.
Observers believe that the main driver behind the closures is the Iran-backed group seeking to squeeze health sector owners for funds.
“The shutdowns are a part of a wider campaign to reassess over 656 medical facilities in Sanaa,” said the Houthi-appointed health minister, Taha al-Mutawakel.
Mutawakel, who is also a hardline cleric, confessed that the campaign of closures is not only ongoing, but is also set to expand to other governorates and cities controlled by Houthis.
The Houthi group accused the closed facilities of failing to comply with regulatory measures. But Sanaa-based medical sources mocked the excuse and said the shutdowns were a part of a broader policy centered on systematic abuse, looting, and extortion.
Speaking under conditions of anonymity, the sources said that Houthi leadership conditioned reopening the 110 medical facilities with the owners paying a “disciplinary fine.”
Healthcare workers in Houthi-run areas have long complained about the Iran-backed militia systemically destroying their sector.
Earlier in 2020, Houthis closed 12 hospitals for allegedly failing to comply with coronavirus and pricing regulations. It set the fine for each facility at a staggering 5 million Yemeni rials.
In other news, Oxfam International warned that Yemen is susceptible to a second wave of the coronavirus.
The organization said that its response operations in Yemen include underpinning the war-torn country’s poor health sector.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Yemen, last week, reported that its health sector partners documented 163 attacks that targeted hospitals and medical facilities across Yemen.
Only half of the health facilities across Yemen are operational, OCHA warned.
OCHA added that a majority of working facilities are facing dire shortages in medicines, supplies, equipment, and personnel.
