‘Hand-washing is a luxury’: Coronavirus fears compound dire situation for pregnant women in Yemen’s displacement camps

MSF says pregnant women in displacement camps are among the world’s most vulnerable to complications and disease, as Fuad Rajeh and Charlene Rodrigues report

Even before Covid-19 came to Yemen, only three in 10 women used hospitals for birth (UNFPA)

Laila Al-Hofaishi is nearly eight months pregnant, weighing just 40kg with a pallid face and tired eyes. She has struggled to leave her mattress for three days straight, exhausted from walking long distances through the hot desert.

She doesn’t have a choice. As a resident of a cramped shelter in Jufainah, the largest displacement camp outside the Yemeni city of Marib, even the simplest of errands to access basic amenities is a chore that takes its toll on a body weakened by poor nutrition. “All I eat is bread and water,” she tells The Independent from the camp by phone.

Al-Hofaishi, 35, says that when the first Covid-19 cases were confirmed in neighbouring Hadhramout province last month, the 500 families living, eating, sleeping, praying and playing in close proximity in her Block 12 were gripped with fear over the threat of coronavirus.