Taiz faces mass displacement, food collapse and looming health crisis as fighting blocks aid

More than 250,000 people have been forced to leave their homes since fighting resumed, and roughly half of those newly displaced have converged on Taiz city and its surrounding governorate. The closure of the only supply route linking Taiz to Aden has choked the flow of essential goods, leaving wheat flour stocks in the affected districts nearly exhausted. Ten of the sixteen districts in the governorate are already classified at emergency levels for food insecurity. The UN human rights chief warned that 32 civilians have been confirmed killed, including 14 children and nine women, as combat moves closer to densely populated neighborhoods.

Health services in Taiz are on the verge of collapse. Twelve hospitals report having only about four days of fuel left, jeopardising the operation of oxygen cylinders that are already in daily deficit. Of the 127 essential medicines tracked, 115 have supplies sufficient for roughly a week or less. Clean water is virtually unavailable for families arriving with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and sanitation services have halted, causing garbage to pile up in the city. The convergence of cholera, measles, suspected diphtheria and dengue cases heightens the risk of a severe health emergency.

Humanitarian actors face extreme difficulty delivering aid because the Aden‑Taiz corridor remains blocked, preventing the distribution of pre‑positioned therapeutic food and fuel needed for water‑pumping stations. The shortage of diesel threatens the operation of water systems, leaving newly displaced people with almost no clean water. In addition to the internally displaced population, about 65,000 refugees and asylum‑seekers, mainly from Somalia and Ethiopia, are urgently in need of assistance. UN officials have called on all parties to protect children, health facilities and water infrastructure in line with international humanitarian law.