The armed men have now taken over the building, exposing the vaccines – estimated to be worth YR eight million and used to protect children in Yemen’s southern and the eastern governorates – to the risk of contamination. 

The armed group informed workers at the stores to evacuate the building, which is the former headquarters of the pre-unification immunization program, threatening to destroy the vaccines if they refused.

The branch of the NIP in Aden claimed that the groups were sent by

Haidara Nasser, the city’s deputy governor. The group was meant to seize the building where the vaccine store is located.

This puts the Ministry of Public Health and Population in an

embarrassing situation as international organizations, especially the World Health Organization and the Global Vaccine Alliance, provide assistance.

According to a source from the Ministry, these events threaten the relationship between the NIP and international organizations donating vaccines to prevent childhood diseases. 

The source added that specialists in the program reported the attack to Aden’s security forces but received no response.

He said that the vaccines might now be at the risk of contamination as the store’s air condition system needs constant observation.

According to another source, who wished to remain anonymous, the armed men threatened to throw out the vaccines if the building was not evacuated. 

This is not the first time the armed group had come to the building, the source added. 

According to a local source, President Ali Abdullah Saleh gave orders to make the building a house for the Al-Jahma, apparently because the latter had told the president the building was empty and unused.

The Yemen Times has obtained a copy of the president’s orders No. 717, which in 2010 granted the building, in front of Al-Eshrieen Camp, to the deputy governor.

Vice President and soon-to-be-president, Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi issued a confirmation memo dated Sep. 16, 2010 to the governor of Aden.

In response, the head of the NIP program Majed Al-Junaid sent a letter to the First Aid & Health Care office at the Ministry of Health and Population, explaining that the building was needed as an alternative in case the air condition system at the central stores failed.

The letter also pointed out that new vaccines were on the way to the stores.

According to a source at the Ministry of Public Health, which is supporting the NIP, the ministry has not yet received a response to resolve the issue.