On the west coast of Yemen, Mohammed al-Hosami receives support from the people of his village of al Mahwit to pay for the treatment of his mother with cancer in a clinic in the nearby town of Hodeidah.
“It is very difficult to find medicines and, if you find them on the market, they are too expensive and citizens cannot afford them. There is no job or salary so we can't afford transportation costs. The inhabitants of my village helped me with the payments for my mother's treatment and transportation ", said Mohammed Al-Emad.
Millions of Yemenis are at risk from hunger and cholera. The emergency, exacerbated by the three-year war, has also affected cancer patients who are struggling to obtain treatment in a country where the economy and infrastructure have collapsed.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that about 35.000 people have cancer in Yemen, about 11.000 cases are diagnosed each year.
Yemen is involved in a war between a Saudi-led military coalition and the Iranian-aligned Houthi group. The fighting has paralyzed the economy and the health system and unleashed the most urgent humanitarian crisis in the world with millions of people suffering from hunger and diseases such as cholera, diphtheria and malaria.
The Saudi-led alliance has imposed severe maritime trade measures on Yemen in an effort to stifle arms supplies to the Houthis, who still control the country's most populous areas, including Sanaa. But the measures have also slowed the flow of supplies of strictly necessary aid.
The center admits about 600 new cancer patients each month, according to Reuters, head of the National Oncology Center in Sanaa, Ahmed al-Ashwal. But last year he received only $ 1 million from state agencies and international aid groups.
The few beds available in the center are reserved for children. Other patients receive treatment intravenously, while sitting in dilapidated reclining chairs or in the waiting area.
WHO said that prior to the conflict, the center was receiving $ 15 million annually from the state and that the budget was used to purchase chemotherapy and cancer drugs for cancer centers across the country.
Now the National Oncology Center relies on the fund provided by international organizations, including the WHO and some charitable organizations or businessmen, as the government fund has been discontinued for about two years.
The head of the Al-Amal Cancer Center, Yasser Abdullah Noor, said the center is struggling to provide assistance to its more than 5.300 patients in Hodeidah and risks closing without government support.
“A center that provides care to thousands of patients cannot function solely on the basis of donations and grants