War in Yemen has pushed millions to the brink of famine in a country ill-prepared to face the new health threat, especially in the country's squalid camps that are ideal breeding grounds for disease.
In a desolate camp for Yemenis displaced by war, Nasima Ahmed wonders how she and her four children can possibly protect themselves as the novel coronavirus stalks the country.
"We are not ready for the coronavirus because we have nothing," Ahmed told AFP at her tent, which is practically empty except for two ragged foam mattresses.
"We need to be able to store food in case a quarantine is imposed," she said.
"I am afraid. I am scared for my children since this virus may lead to our deaths."
Squalid camps for internally displaced people like the one where Ahmed lives in Khokha, outside the Red Sea port city of Hodeida come with little chance of proper sanitation or social distancing.
Since the first COVID-19 cases were reported in Yemen last month, anxiety has grown among those living in tents -- fashioned from canvas, branches and scraps of plastic -- who are among the worst-off in the Arab world's poorest nation.
Yemen's health system has all but collapsed since the conflict broke out in 2014, with some 20 million people -- more than two thirds of the population -- needing aid to survive, according to the United Nations.
The government has so far reported 65 coronavirus cases, including 10 deaths, while the Houthis have announced two infections, including one death.
However, an official in the government's interim capital of Aden said the number of cases could be much higher. Also, the Yemeni government accuse Houthis of underreporting cases.
"Seventy people died of various diseases in Aden in the 24 hours between Sunday and Monday," the official, who works in the government's crisis response unit, told AFP.
"It could be from the coronavirus... but in the absence of international organisations and testing, there is no way to tell," said the official, who sport on condition of anonymity.
Around 3.3 million people have been displaced, forced to live in abandoned schools or camps where diseases such as cholera run rampant due to the scarcity of clean water and medication.
Aden resident Saddam Bijash complained he had not seen "any tangible measures" to curb the disease.
"We expect the virus to spread and for a disaster that no one will be able to control," he told AFP.
As children played in the dust outside the rows of makeshift tents at the camp in Khokha, Salah Darwish, one of the displaced, said he was fearful for the young and the elderly.
"The virus will spread like wildfire -- we are afraid and anxious," he said.
