MSF in Yemen: People just want peace

Yemen has been divided between Houthis - supported by former President Ali Abdullah Saleh - and an anti-Houthi coalition backed by Saudi Arabia and other gulf states in support of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Saudi-led airstrikes began in March, with the declared aim of stopping the Houthi advance and reinstating Hadi. Thousands have been killed and infrastructure severely damaged in the conflict.

Yemen's health system is stretched to breaking point, with civilians and combatants alike relying on volunteers from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) for both emergency and basic treatment. MSF Project Coordinator Christine Buesser, just back from two months of managing the organization's response in the Al Dhale area, told DW about life on the frontlines in Yemen.

DW: What does a day in your job look like?

Christine Buesser: We receive severely wounded patients. They have gunshots to the head and chest. They have shrapnel in their bodies. Some of them come to the hospital just to die because they get there too late and there is nothing we can do.

In the morning we would often have a lot of civilian patients. Women who are pregnant who have no where else to go because most of the health structures now in Yemen are closed. I saw a lot of children who were quite badly dehydrated because of vomiting and diarrhea. We would receive a lot of elderly people. Because of the whole collapse of the health system, we are doing more than just emergency care.

What about the interaction among these groups of patients? You had combatants from both sides of the conflict in your hospital and you also had civilians caught up in the violence and the knock-on consequences of that.

Actually, there was a sense of solidarity that I found quite inspiring. I often heard people say that, at the end of the day, they are all people, they are all Yemeni. We stress the fact, again and again, that the hospital has to stay a safe pace. A place of peace, that anybody has access to, independent of where they come from, independent of their religion, their political or cultural affiliations.

I was also working with my team to basically demilitarize both hospitals so that if we receive combatants they would leave their arms and ammunition belts outside of the hospital gates. That was a big part of my work.

You said your patients inspired you. Is there a particular story, a particular case that touched you over the two months you were there?

There were so many. Women would come because they heard that female international staff are in town, and they thought - we want to go talk to them. They would say, "I have body pain. I have headaches. I cannot sleep, I feel nauseous, every time I get up from my bed I feel like fainting." I would ask them what is happening and they would say, "It's just too much - between the airstrikes and the shelling." Many of them live close to the active frontline where you have daily fighting going on, with very heavy artillery, tanks and rockets and mortars.

So they say, "We cannot sleep any more and we are afraid to even get water." Because of the lack of fuel, the water facilities are not running any more so they have to walk to the few wells that might still have water. "I am afraid to go to the market to get food because you never know when an airstrike might hit, and I am afraid for my children. I don't know what to do with them." The schools have been closed for months and months.

All they talk about is how afraid they are. They have all of these psychosomatic reactions to the ongoing violence and to their daily struggle just to survive. They came to the hospital just to talk to us. I would spend a lot of time in the hospital just listening. That was my job - to listen to people.

And there was a story in the Al Dhale project location. This person told to me, "Christine, you know, I haven't had a smile on my face for a month because there is nothing to smile about. But with all of you showing up and you, MSF, just seeing you, seeing international people, doctors, nurses - also the local staff - seeing all of you working, going out of your way to help our population, gives me a smile again because it gives us a sense of hope."

But at the same time, that is also a big burden. Because we are a bit alone - during my time we were the only international organization working in the Al Dhale governorate on a continuous basis with international staff on the ground. And the crisis is too big for us to assist. So that is an enormous challenge.

Those people who are coming to you for help, do you get a sense of who they blame, or who they're looking to for a resolution to the conflict?

No. No, most people just told me, "I want to go about my life. I want to be in peace, I want to go back to the market place without being worried, I want to have my children go back to school." They said, "I want be able to travel again on the road without being scared."

They just want to have a peaceful life again at this moment in time. There was actually no shaming and blaming at least from what I heard from the people I spoke to. They just want to live a normal life again and not live in daily fear - am I going to make it? Am I going to be alive tomorrow? Am I going to have enough food and water?

The people I met have a lot of resilience. They are very courageous. That touched me. And they also have a sense of solidarity - supporting each other. I have seen a lot of families that have taken in displaced people who have nowhere to go. They would share their food with them, their water, and give them some temporary shelter. Just supporting each other during this difficult time.

This interview was conducted by Kate Laycock and Natalie Muller. It has been edited and condensed for clarity.