Siege fuels disease fears in Yemen’s Taiz

A woman from Jabal Sabir, a mountain overlooking Taiz, held the body of her infant granddaughter, Gaza Ali Abdulmughni al-Shaqab, wrapped in a white shroud. The child had died after the family’s vehicle was attacked by Houthi forces while trying to reach a hospital, the Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms reported.

The Yemeni government has accused the Iran-backed Houthis of tightening their siege on Taiz for more than a month. This blockade has cut off the last major supply route into government-held areas, preventing the entry of food, safe drinking water, medicines, and fuel for nearly two million residents.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that the siege imposed by the Houthis on civilians in Taiz may amount to the war crime of using starvation as a method of warfare. The group said that residents, aid workers, and United Nations officials had all reported that the Houthis were to blame for the road closures.

The Houthis have denied responsibility for the road closures, instead blaming Yemeni government forces. Fighting between the two sides intensified over the summer, with the Houthis capturing substantial territory along Yemen’s Red Sea coast in September and making further advances in the Taiz governorate.

Worsening humanitarian crisis

International bodies have repeatedly warned of the crisis now facing Taiz. The World Food Programme (WFP) said on October 14 that it had been unable to reach more than 600,000 people in Taiz who depend on humanitarian assistance.

The WFP described the situation as “especially alarming,” noting that most districts in Taiz were classified as facing emergency levels of hunger. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) added that health services in Taiz were failing due to a shortage of supplies.

Nearly 250,000 people had lost access to essential healthcare, including more than 186,000 children younger than five years old, the agency said. It added that more than 1,400 cases of acute diarrhoea and suspected cholera were reported in just one week.

Twelve hospitals are at risk of closing or have had to reduce services due to a lack of fuel and critical supplies, OCHA reported. Figures from Taiz’s Public Health and Population Office show that 5,642 cases across three disease categories were recorded during the latest four-week reporting period.

The vast majority – 5,228 cases – were of acute watery diarrhoea. There were also 232 suspected dengue fever cases and 182 suspected cholera cases. Dr Yasin Abdulmalik, the director of the department, said the number of watery diarrhoea cases decreased compared with the previous reporting period, but this was likely the result of residents finding it increasingly difficult to reach health facilities.