crises

Yemen has reported 8,034 suspected cases and 27 deaths this year, with a quarter of cases from the last four weeks.

Suspected cholera cases in Yemen have tripled in the past three weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned, as civilians have fled renewed fighting and sought safety in unsanitary camps.

Ramped up combat, which has pushed more than 200,000 people to flee their homes, the WHO added in a report on Tuesday, driving suspected cases from 217 in the week of September 6-12 to 647 in the week of September 27 to October 3.

“Families fleeing conflict are now facing another threat from diseases that can be prevented and treated,” said Annette Heinzelmann, the UN agency’s emergency director for the region.

“Without urgent funding and unimpeded access to safe water, vaccination and essential health services, outbreaks could spread rapidly among already vulnerable communities.”

This year, the global health watchdog said, Yemen had reported 8,034 suspected cases and 27 deaths, with a quarter of the suspected cases occurring in the last four weeks.

Five governorates hosting large numbers of displaced people in the southwest – Abyan, Lahij, al-Dhalea, Taiz and Aden – account for 92 percent of reported cases, they reported. The disease has also reached remote displacement camps in Hadramout in the country’s east that are particularly difficult for medical teams to access.

Emergency response underfunded

Cholera has ebbed and flowed for years as the conflict in Yemen has continued. In 2024, the WHO warned that the country was facing the “highest burden” of a global cholera outbreak. In 2017, a wave of the disease infected hundreds of thousands and killed at least 2,000.

Yemen was already suffering one of the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis” and has seen an escalation of circumstances since fighting reignited between the Houthis – an armed group known as Ansar Allah (Arabic for Supporters of God), and the internationally recognised Yemeni government.

Cholera is an acute intestinal infection that spreads through food and water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, often from faeces. It causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting and muscle cramps.

Contracting the illness can be deadly when not treated with oral rehydration or antibiotics for more severe cases.

The Geneva-based WHO said it had only secured $3.78m of the $31m needed for its 90-day emergency response in Yemen.

The funding is intended to help expand disease surveillance in displacement sites, deploy rapid response teams, strengthen cholera treatment and improve infection prevention in health facilities and cholera treatment sites.

Aden, Yemen – In this coastal city long accustomed to sweltering, humid summers, the absence of electricity can reshape an entire day.

When the power cuts out, fans and air conditioners fall silent. Sleep becomes difficult. Students race to finish their homework before darkness arrives. Children spill onto the streets while young men drift towards the sea in search of moving air and cooler waters.

Inside hospitals, where treatment cannot be postponed until the lights come back on, electricity carries a different weight altogether.

Yemen’s power crisis predates the current war. Even before the conflict, only about 55 percent of the population had access to electricity from all sources, which is among the lowest rates in the Middle East and North Africa.

Since 2015, damage to infrastructure, fuel shortages and ageing generation and distribution systems have left supplies even more fragile.

In Aden, power stations continue to face repeated shutdowns, leaving residents without electricity for long periods. Insurance premium increases on tankers carrying fuel to Aden have also reportedly made the crisis worse.

An assessment by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published this year said Aden was receiving just two to six hours of electricity a day as structural weaknesses and fuel shortages caused frequent outages.

As the sun sets over the city, a second part of the day begins. Homes and businesses slip into darkness, punctuated only by small lights powered by batteries and solar systems. Residents often do not know how long the latest blackout will last, or how long the power will stay on once it comes back.

During the summer, when temperatures in Aden climb towards 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), the consequences are hard to escape. Residents in the city interviewed in the middle of the year said their homes had become almost unbearable during the prolonged power cuts that plague the city. The heat does not always disappear when the sun goes down.

“Sometimes the power comes back while we are asleep, so we wake up to use it. Our lives have become tied to when electricity comes and goes,” one resident said. For her family, an outage is measured not just in hours but in problems. Children are unable to sleep, food spoils in warm refrigerators and housework must wait.

When the heat inside becomes too much, Youssef heads for the coast. The sea, he said, is no longer just a place of recreation but a refuge from the unbearable heat of the city.

“When the electricity is off for hours, it is very difficult to stay inside,” he said. “There is no fan and no air conditioning, and the humidity makes the heat worse, so we come to the sea.”

Towards the end of the day, young men and families gather along the waterfront. Some swim. Others simply sit beside the water and wait for the city to cool. But the sea cannot solve Aden’s electricity crisis. Hours later, Youssef returns home and sometimes finds the house exactly as he left it.

“Sometimes we get back and the power is still out, and we start waiting all over again,” he said.

For children like Mohammed, Saeed and Abdullah, blackouts have changed where childhood takes place. When their homes become too hot, they move into the street, running between houses or sitting with other children until late.

“It gets hot inside the house, so we come down and play in the street,” one of the boys said. “We play football or sit with our friends. Outside is better when the electricity is off.”

For them, a blackout is not an extraordinary event. It is part of the life they have grown up with.

The effects follow them into the classroom. In Aden, the United Nations Development Programme documented more than 7,000 students and teachers struggling in dark, stifling classrooms during power cuts. The installation of solar systems at eight schools and an education office has helped. One teacher reported that some students had fainted due to the heat.

At home, preparing for exams can depend on a rechargeable lamp or a small solar system if they have one.

In hospitals, there is no option but to simply wait out the darkness. Operating theatres, intensive care units, laboratories, medical refrigerators and dialysis machines all depend on continuous power.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says recurring power cuts disrupt lifesaving health services across Yemen, forcing facilities to rely on combinations of grid electricity, generators and solar systems.

In 2025, the WHO supplied about 4.33 million litres (1.14 million gallons) of fuel to 177 health facilities across the country to keep generators and essential equipment running.

Zeina Ahmed, a kidney patient, watches tubes carry her blood to a dialysis machine.

“For people at home, a power cut means heat and darkness. For us here, the first thing we think about is whether we will be able to have our dialysis or not,” she said.

“I come to the hospital knowing that I need this session. If it is delayed, I keep thinking about when I will get it and whether the machines will continue to work.”

After years of unreliable grid supply, solar panels, batteries and generators have become familiar parts of Yemen’s landscape.

They sit on rooftops, providing power to the homes, businesses and schools that can afford them.

More than half of Yemen’s homes now rely on solar power in some form, according to the WHO, while hospitals and other health facilities are increasingly adopting solar systems to keep essential services running.

Families who can afford to buy larger panels and batteries can power more appliances. Others might have just enough electricity for a light, a fan or a phone charger – a fragile shield against the dark and the heat.