Taiz hospitals near collapse as Houthis tighten siege: Yemen government

By Al Jazeera Staff. Published On 11 Oct 202611 Oct 2026.

Key points

• When Yemeni administration forces were confined to an enclave in the city centre, taiz endured a devastating Houthi siege between 2015 and 2016.
• He remarked concerning 2.8 million individuals live in government-held areas of the governorate, along with 200, 000 who have lately been displaced.
• Though the Houthis kept a partial blockade through other access points, the siege was broken in 2016.
• The UN refugee agency and the World Health Organization have cautioned that the fighting is putting Yemen's fragile health system in peril.
• Yemeni administration forces, backed by Saudi Arabia, began a counteroffensive in early October.

As the Houthis continue their siege and "obstruct essential supplies", yemen's internationally recognised administration has cautioned of an "imminent health and humanitarian catastrophe" in the besieged city of Taiz, in the country's southwest.

Yemen's Ministry of Public Health and Population remarked in an official note on Saturday that medicines, intravenous fluids, medical supplies and fuel at the city's health facilities were "nearing depletion".

It remarked emergency care, surgery, intensive care, dialysis and neonatal services could be forced to stop if the situation continued, putting patients, injured residents, pregnant women and newborns "at immediate risk".

Fuel shortages additionally threaten electricity generators, ambulances and the cold chains that keep medicines and vaccines usable. It could cause "severe complications and preventable deaths", the ministry stated.

It demanded the siege be lifted immediately, and supply routes reopened, with safe passage for patients, ambulances, health workers and aid.

It called on the United Nations and humanitarian organisations to "deliver medicines, intravenous fluids, medical supplies, oxygen and fuel" to the city's health facilities.

"Every delay increases the risk of service interruption and loss of life, " the ministry remarked.

For context, the Houthis, an armed group backed by Iran and additionally known as Ansar Allah, seized Yemen's capital, Sanaa, by force in 2014 and afterwards imposed their own administration. They control the country's north and northeast.

Though the Houthis kept a partial blockade through other access points, the siege was broken in 2016. In 2024, they agreed to reopen a route from the east, but it has been closed after fighting resumed. The renewed siege took shape in early October.

Meanwhile, the Houthis introduced an offensive along the Red Sea coast of the Taiz governorate in September, capturing the port city of Mocha, and by October 4 had taken the town of At Turbah, cutting the last main road between Taiz city and other government-held areas.

Nabil Jamil, director-general of the Yemeni government's planning and development office in the Taiz governorate, informed Al Jazeera the current siege is "more comprehensive and its impact more severe than in 2015".

Fuel has become scarce, and on the black market, the cost of a 20-litre (5.2-gallon) container of petrol has risen from 30, 000 Yemeni riyals ($19) to 90, 000 ($58).

"We are still waiting for a response or intervention on the ground, " Jamil remarked.

Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency and the World Health Organization have cautioned that the fighting is putting Yemen's fragile health system in peril.

"Civilians must never be turned into a means of exerting pressure in any conflict, " remarked Nabil Sharyan, a lawyer and head of the Justice for Rights and Development Organization.

In short, taiz hospitals near collapse as Houthis tighten siege: Yemen government is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.