Yemen's national blood bank at risk of closure within week: Official

Yemen's national blood bank is facing a complete shutdown within a week as the impoverished Arab country continues to suffer from a deadly military campaign by Saudi Arabia.

Ayman al-Shihari, the facility's director, on Thursday warned that the closure could exacerbate the existing humanitarian crisis in the country.

"Supplies are running out," media outlets quoted al-Shihari as saying.

He said that the bank's closure could lead to a "humanitarian catastrophe," noting that the facility receives up to 3,000 cases monthly.

The cases include patients with cancer, thalassaemia, kidney failure and those wounded in the war. Thalassemia is a hereditary form of anemia that requires regular transfusions.

The remarks come as the Doctors Without Borders organization, also known by its French acronym MSF, informed the bank it was suspending its aid after more than two years of work.

Elsewhere in his remarks, al-Shihari added that the facility has yet to receive any aid from the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

The MSF gave out its last donation to the blood bank in June after it signed an agreement with the WHO handing over the support to the UN health agency. The MSF supplies cover only two months.

The MSF had been doing extensive work in Yemen since the Saudi military invasion began in 2015, operating hospitals and clinics and providing medical supplies to various facilities.

In a report in January, the international charity said it had been providing regular blood testing kits to the blood bank since September 2015.

Munir al-Zubaidi, a spokesman for the bank, earlier said that patients as well as the victims of the conflict would continue to suffer if the bank closed down. 

Yemen has been torn by the ongoing Saudi military aggression that has destroyed much of the country's infrastructure, including its health system. 

The developments come as the country of 27 million has also been struggling to cope with cholera. The epidemic has already affected some 600,000 people and killed nearly 2,000.

Saudi Arabia has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to reinstate former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh, and to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement. The Riyadh regime has, however, failed to reach its goals despite suffering great expenses.

The military aggression has claimed the lives of more than 12,000 people, mostly civilians.

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