In 2020 Yemen continued to be caught in a spiral of armed conflicts and other violence. Violence intensified in Abyan, Hodeida, Marib and Taiz. The UN called for a ceasefire to allow the parties to focus on containing the spread of COVID-19, but the violence was unabated. Fighting between government forces and armed groups – such as Al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula and the Islamic State group – and among the armed groups persisted in some parts of the country. The humanitarian consequences of this protracted violence were calamitous. Health care, water and other basic services were virtually non-existent; supply shortages, already a critical problem, were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, national capacities in tackling public-health emergencies like cholera and COVID-19 were extremely limited. The inaccessibility of essential goods and services, and the loss of livelihoods, pushed millions of people closer to destitution. Much of the population was dependent on some form of aid; but organizations providing it had to contend not only with the immensity of needs but also with challenges such as attacks against their personnel and facilities.

The ICRC strove to meet the most urgent humanitarian needs in Yemen, despite the extremely volatile and increasingly restrictive working environment. Because of the prevailing insecurity and the pandemic, some of our activities were cancelled, postponed or only partially implemented. Our logistics base in Oman and our office in Djibouti continued to support operations in Yemen. We worked closely with the Yemen Red Crescent Society and other Movement partners to cover gaps and coordinate activities. We continued to call on all parties to the conflicts to respect IHL, protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, and ensure access to essential services and humanitarian aid. Whenever possible, we brought documented allegations of IHL violations and protection-related concerns to their attention.

We supported 35 primary-health-care centres that served some 685,500 people, work to which Hamid was actively contributing. This assistance consisted of monitoring visits, community outreach activities, donations of medicine and medical equipment, and training and health staff. We also delivered ad hoc support to five of these facilities – including two COVID-19 quarantine sites and two cholera-treatment centres – which helped boost their capacity to respond to public-health emergencies. The ICRC provided 47 hospitals near front lines with medicines, equipment and other supplies; 14 of these hospitals were given daily support by our staff, who supervised hospital personnel or directly treated patients.

Roughly five million people had better access to essential services and a more reliable supply of clean water and electricity – and were less at risk of disease – owing to ICRC initiatives, both planned and ad hoc. Local water and sanitation corporations, water committees and other service providers were given material support and technical guidance. This helped them maintain and operate water and sewage systems, ultimately benefiting everyone in their communities. Emergency repairs and donations helped to prevent service disruption and bolster local capacities in preventing and controlling infections: for example, quarantine sites were provided with water tanks and filters, solar panels and tents.

Because of the pandemic, we suspended our detention visits for much of the year as a precautionary measure, but we continued supporting penitentiary authorities’ efforts to improve detention conditions and respond to COVID-19. This enabled us to meet detention authorities with whom we had no contact previously and to access more places of detention than before: 43 in total, and ten for the first time. These facilities collectively held over 20,000 people.