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This picture was taken in Aden in 2015,

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in an area called Khormaksar.

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This area is near the airport.

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It was a tourist area, not far from the beach,

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and we can see in this picture nice buildings,

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completely destroyed,

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an empty street with a tank in the middle,

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and a lot of debris everywhere.

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When Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis,

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came from the north into the city,

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the governmental forces withdrew to the south,

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and they left

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caught on the front line

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with many civilians caught there as well.

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We can see in this picture the atmosphere of street fighting

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that really happened very heavily in the city at that time.

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The MSF hospital opened a few years before this war,

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and then started to scale up its activity during this war.

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The MSF team in the trauma center mobilized very quickly,

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they spent most of their time days and nights,

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managing an influx of patients.

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On the 25th of March [2015], only 80 patients came to the hospital

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and in the next 24 hours,

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180 more arrived in the emergency room.

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At the same time,

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given the intensity of the fights around the city,

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the team tried to move out to refer patients to the hospital,

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and we established some advanced medical posts

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where we could stabilize patients

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and organize an ambulance transfer to the hospital.

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There was a big mobilization,

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and under very heavy fighting and very frequent shelling

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within the city and nearby the hospital.

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This picture was taken inside the hospital

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in the emergency room

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during a mass casualty incident plan.

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The wounded, whetherthey come one by one,

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whether they come in groups,

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and sometimes it happens that we are receiving

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10 or 20 patients

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The most severe patients are put

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on what we call the red zone,

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where they are ready for surgery,

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and the others are dispatched around

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where there is some space,

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in addition to the already existing patients

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inside the hospital.

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This kind of situationcan be very chaotic,

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the team is quickly overwhelmed by the number of patients

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and the families who are also here.

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In this kind of situation, we must find space anywhere.

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Patients are put sometimes on the floor, in the corridors,

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and at this time, when there are fighting around,

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there is a high risk of having windows shattered.

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Before we were able to put anti-blast film on the windows,

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we had to move the patients away from the windows

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and gather them sometimes in the corridors.

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The picture here shows stretcher bearers

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from the emergency room

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rushing into the hospital on a slight slope.

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You can see the efforts, the intensity, the urgency of this moment

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where the patient is most probably wounded

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and we are in a real emergency life-saving situation.

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In August 2016, there was a huge blast

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a few hundred meters away from the hospital

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that shook the whole building.

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And this picture was taken that day

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when around 60 patients arrived at the hospital.

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This explosion killed 46 people that day.

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In 2016 and 2017,

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Ansar Allah pulled out of the city and moved to the north

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and the front lines were located

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in this area to the north of the city.

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We started what we call external activities

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in some areas near the front lines

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like Kirsh or Lawdar

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where we supported this advanced medical point

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to stabilize patients and refer them to Aden.

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This picture was taken in Mocha in 2018.

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MSF opened a field hospital

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on the west coast along the Red Sea.

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You can see in this picture the structure is under a tent,

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with little space between the beds.

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It's a bit congested and busy with many patients,

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all beds occupied and doctors around a case.

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This hospital was very near the front lines

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and what we called an emergency field trauma hospital,

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complementary to what we were doing in Aden.

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The hospital in Mocha wasmuch closer to the front line,

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treating patients, saving lives

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and referring the more complex cases to Aden.

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The interesting thing in Mocha is that

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we were receiving many kinds of patients

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from many places around

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and we were also receiving pregnant women

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and we opened a maternity in a trauma hospital

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that shows how bad public services were

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and how few options were left to the population.

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This picture shows in 2017

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MSF intervention in supporting the Ministry of Health (MOH)

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during a massive cholera outbreak

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that hit the whole country.

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The World Health Organization (WHO)reported more than 150,000 cases

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and MSF supported several facilities

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across the south of the country with around 200 beds.

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It was a massive outbreak

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and this picture shows MSF team together with the MOH team

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in Al-Sadaqa Hospital

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which is just behind the trauma center

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admitting patients for cholera

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in a specific ward that was organized for that.

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These cholera interventions happened during the war.

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It's also important to remind that in parallel

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the trauma center was running

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some fighting was going on in the north

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and we saw the start of the shift of power

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within the south where the Southern Transitional Council (STC)

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started to take over some areas

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within the city, within the south.

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The picture here shows MSF’s intervention in Aden

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managing COVID-19

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and COVID was a particular moment in Yemen.

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First, because it was severely underreported

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with a high incidence of cases.

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The MSF team in Aden opened a COVID center in Al-Amal

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20 kilometers west of Aden.

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A 30-bed COVID center

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where they admitted more than 200 patients in 3 or 4 weeks

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with 50% mortality.

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COVID was newfor the whole world

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and doing major damages also among the population in Yemen

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where very little precaution measures were taken.

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So, this new disease in this specific environment

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mobilized massively the teams with equipment, isolation and oxygen.

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We had to isolatesome patients,

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and put some measures in place

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to protect also the healthcare workers, our staff.

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We had to adapt a lot

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and this had an impact on our trauma center in Aden.

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Today, in Aden, we still have

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an emergency preparedness plan based there,

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progressively having a plan to pull out,

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but we are still monitoring

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and we still have a presence in the city.