Yemen and Syria: updates

Written by David Fletcher 23 Jul 2020
Yemen and Syria: updates

Yemen, currently home to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, has millions of people extremely vulnerable to coronavirus. Even before the pandemic, 80% of Yemen’s population needed aid. The spread of coronavirus is difficult to track with very little testing. Sometimes the only way to assess the severity of an outbreak is by how busy the gravediggers are. In parts of Yemen gravediggers are overwhelmed. Coronavirus has caused a reduction in funding for aid programmes. The UN has been forced to close nutrition, hygiene and sanitation programmes (see). Doctors in Syria are preparing for ‘an explosion’ of coronavirus in large overcrowded settlements. Only 64% of hospitals are functioning due to shortages of trained staff. 70% of health workers have fled Syria. Awareness of coronavirus danger is extremely low in some areas, so food and medicine are prioritised for people in poverty, not soap and hygiene. See

Additional Info

  • Pray: for God to bring relief to vulnerable communities fleeing conflict and instability and caught in war zones which are now facing the deadly coronavirus threat. (Ezra 9:8b)