Time ‘running out’ to reach Yemen’s Taiz amid deepening crisis, UN says

For context, a mounting humanitarian disaster is gripping Yemen's Taiz after almost three weeks of a Houthi siege that has prevented supplies from entering the city, the United Nations has cautioned.

Key points

• The ensuing escalation has displaced almost 260, 000 residents, the majority in Taiz and Lahij provinces, according to the UN.
• At least 1, 574 individuals have been killed and 6, 939 others wounded in the conflict since August.
• When the Houthis confirmed a blockade on Saudi ports, a truce was brokered by the UN in 2022, but it fell apart this July.
• The Iran-backed Houthis have encircled Taiz since early October, cutting off the road that links it to Aden.
• Fighting in Taiz province has intensified in recent days, with clashes documented in the Jabal Han highlands and the Dhubab and al-Masrakh districts.

Meanwhile, the Iran-backed Houthis have encircled Taiz since early October, cutting off the road that links it to Aden. It serves as the interim capital of Yemen's internationally recognised administration. Little fuel, food or other supplies have reached the city since.

"It's 20 days and counting since Taiz has been cut off, " Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN's humanitarian arm, OCHA, informed a news conference in Geneva on Friday. "We are seeing increasingly that the fighting makes it impossible for us to get in and impossible for people to get out."

Most individuals depend on water brought in by trucks, the cost of which has tripled, Laerke stated. Cooking gas is additionally "largely unavailable", threatening community kitchens that provide meals to families.

Altogether, more than 800, 000 individuals in Taiz are cut off from aid, concerning three-quarters of whom depend on humanitarian assistance, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP). At least 200, 000 are women and children.

While local humanitarian groups have been able to distribute their remaining supplies to keep water pumps and hospitals running, Laerke remarked, "It comes with a time code: The clock is running out."

Colonel Majid al-Nuzaili, a spokesperson for the forces of the internationally recognised administration, stated on Friday that troops had conducted raids and counterattacks in Taiz over the last 24 hours, "neutralising" 620 Houthi fighters and destroying 190 vehicles. Al Jazeera could not independently verify the figures.

Hospitals in the province are meanwhile reporting critical shortages of fuel, oxygen, medicine and supplies. Forty-two Taiz facilities face "acute" deficits, the World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier remarked.

Notably, the fighting has additionally deepened an ongoing hunger crisis. In Taiz alone, UN screenings have discovered more than 52, 000 children to have acute malnutrition; approximately 11, 500 are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

"We're desperately trying to regain access to Taiz, and we continue to support the broader operations across Yemen, " remarked Azfar Deen, a WFP regional communications officer for eastern and Southern Africa.

In response to the humanitarian fallout, the European Commission remarked on Friday that it would release an further 22.5 million euros ($25.2m) in aid to Yemen, adding to the 87.5 million ($97.9m) previously allocated for 2026.

Yemen has been rocked by conflict since the Houthis seized Sanaa and other provinces in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in 2015 to backing the internationally recognised administration.

For context, the ensuing escalation has displaced almost 260, 000 residents, the majority in Taiz and Lahij provinces, according to the UN. More than 3, 800 individuals have additionally fled to neighbouring Djibouti.

In short, time 'running out' to reach Yemen's Taiz amid deepening crisis, UN says is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.