INTERVIEW: Hakim Khaldi, PC back from Hodeidah, Yemen (ENG)

Hakim, is back from Hodeidah wher he was project coordinatorfor two months.
"What struck me was how poor people are."

MSF260928

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INTERVIEW: Hakim Khaldi, PC back from Hodeidah, Yemen (INT)

INTERVIEW: Hakim Khaldi, PC back from Hodeidah, Yemen (FR)

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INTERVIEW: Hakim Khaldi, PC Hodeidah, Yemen (Feb 2019)

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Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF260928

Date taken / Date Recorded 05/02/2019 12:00 AM

Country Yemen

Commissioning section MSF-FRANCE

Photographer / videographer / producer Mohammad Ghannam

Usage Rights (MSF) External Media, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available yes

Editor's rating ★★★★★ (C)

Video format h264 (Constrained Baseline) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 3m34s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 341.90 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist What struck me was how poor people are. I saw lots of people begging, or rummaging through rubbish bins for food. Paradoxically, it wasn’t the number of people wounded as a result of the fighting that struck me, but the poverty that’s rife throughout the country.

Hakim Khaldi, project coordinator in Hodeidah, Yemen

Inside Hodeidah itself, the main problem faced by civilians is for people living near the frontline, because almost the whole city is now under siege. Otherwise, the city itself hasn’t been bombed since a ceasefire was signed at the end of December 2018.

The airstrikes have stopped but there’s still fighting, especially at night, between the Houthis and the Saudi coalition forces. So, it’s mostly mortar fire and exchanges of gunfire.
We’ve had incidents when stray bullets have landed on the roof of the hospital or the office directly opposite.

SLATE
MSF has been working
in Al Salakhana hospital
in Hodeidah since October 2018

One third of our patients have wounds resulting from the fighting. They’ve been shot or they’re the victims of stray bullets, shell or mine shrapnel. The wounded can be separated geographically, people wounded in the city of Hodeidah itself—but they’re the minority, as most are from outside the city. It’s important to know that there’s fighting in Hodeidah governorate, particularly in the south, so we admit patients from places like the area around Zabid who have to travel six hours by road to get treatment in our hospital in Hodeidah.

The big problem is that the majority of health facilities in the governorate are barely functioning and most health care is concentrated in the city of Hodeidah.

SLATE
Four years of war have crushed the population,
trapped by fighting and now destitute

What struck me was how poor people are. I saw lots of people begging, or rummaging through rubbish bins for food. Paradoxically, it wasn’t the number of people wounded as a result of the fighting that struck me, but the poverty that’s rife throughout the country, and which we witness in the city of Hodeidah.

In our medical work we haven’t seen any signs of a famine situation yet, because there’s no disruption to food supplies. When you go to shops and markets, you see fruit and vegetables. Some shops even have imported products. So there’s no real problem of supply. Food is available. The major problem is that there’s been inflation, which adds to the difficulty the state has had paying public employees. So quite a lot of people have ended up with no money and can’t afford to buy themselves breakfast, lunch or dinner.

SLATE
Between October 2018 and February 2019,
535 surgical procedures and over 4,000 consultations
were provided in Al Salakhana hospital