Aggression on Yemen: Country struck with mental health crisis

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For seven years, suffering from a war led by the Saudi-led coalition, Yemen is facing a wave of mental illness that has overwhelmed the war-torn country.

"We try to provide treatment, but we cannot treat everyone," said Adel Melhi, director of a psychiatric hospital in Taiz.

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, backed by the US and the UK, fueled and funded a war that has killed hundreds of thousands and pushed the impoverished nation to the brink of famine.

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Aid groups set off the humanitarian alarm with more than 23 million people -- more than two-thirds of Yemen's population -- dependent on aid.

The government-run Taiz psychiatric hospital has room for 200 patients, but the number of people in need of care as a result of the "tragedies caused by the war" have surged far higher, Melhi said.

War toll

There were 59 psychiatrists in 2020, or one for every 500,000 residents. Yemen has a population of roughly 30 million, according to data from the health ministry.

Around 300 personnel, spread throughout seven hospitals, are devoted to mental health, including therapists, caretakers, and nurses.

The authorities have not released any recent data on mental illness in Yemen.

Yemen's Family Development and Guidance Foundation's study in 2017, based in Sanaa, estimated that nearly a fifth of all residents had mental health issues.

The report said the population "faces constant pressure, loss and serious shocks -- whether as a result of food insecurity, unemployment, cholera, arbitrary detention, torture, indiscriminate attacks, air strikes or poor basic public services."

The Coronavirus pandemic and the "continued toll of the violence," according to a report this year from the United Nations, may have increased the number.

Read next: UN proposal to extend truce does not establish peace in Yemen: Sanaa

According to aid organizations, a truce mediated by the UN since April caused a significant decrease in hostilities and permitted actions to improve the grave humanitarian situation. However, since the truce, the Saudi-led coalition has committed multiple violations.

Earlier in October, the Sanaa negotiating delegation held the Saudi-led coalition of aggression "responsible for the negotiations reaching a dead end due to their intransigence."

"After the coalition of aggression played all its cards, it had no other choice but to target the livelihood of the Yemeni people, as it is the easiest way to bring the people to their knees," the statement considered.

The delegation stressed in its statement that after the member states of the Saudi-led coalition lost all their bets, their only weapon has become exerting pressure on the economy and maintaining the siege on Yemen.