In Yemen’s North, Houthis Face Virus With Outright Denial

CAIRO - For three days last month, Nasser joined hundreds of others jammed into emergency rooms in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, searching for a hospital bed for his mother, who was struggling to breathe. By the time one became available, his mother was dead.

But her death certainly won’t figure in the country’s coronavirus numbers. Officially, there have been only four virus cases and one death in Yemen’s north, according to the Houthi rebel authorities who control the capital and surrounding provinces. It’s not just a struggling health care system that’s to blame for the unaccounted-for deaths. In interviews with The Associated Press, more than a dozen doctors, aid workers, Sanaa residents and relatives of those believed to have died from the virus said the Houthi authorities are approaching the pandemic with such outright denial that it threatens to further endanger the already vulnerable population. They say doctors are forced to falsify the cause of death on official papers, vaccines are seen with fear, and there are no limits or guidelines on public gatherings, much less funerals.