A month-long Houthi siege has cut off Taiz, a city in southern Yemen, leaving hundreds of thousands of people struggling to get food, medicine and fuel. The United Nations has repeatedly warned of a catastrophe inside the city as supplies run short.
Among those caught in the blockade is Ahmed al-Mikhlafi. He left Taiz with his wife and three children a week before the latest fighting broke out, travelling to Mecca to perform Umrah. When the family tried to return, they were stranded in the western countryside of the governorate, unable to reach their home or Ahmed’s job in the city.
Family stranded after Umrah trip as fighting resumed
Ahmed, whose name has been shortened for security reasons, said fighting erupted while the family was abroad and the Houthis again placed the city under a full siege. They delayed their return for more than two weeks, hoping the clashes would end and the blockade would be lifted. When that did not happen, they decided to go back and face whatever awaited them.
The siege has now lasted 30 days and affected hundreds of thousands of people in the area. The UN has warned that conditions are worsening, with food and medicine becoming increasingly scarce in the city.
How the blockade cut Taiz off from the outside world
According to the account given, the siege began with the seizure of al-Turbah, a town in the far southwest of Taiz governorate. That move cut the city’s main link with Aden and the outside world. The Houthis had already reached the outskirts of Taiz in 2015, after pushing the government out of the capital, Sanaa, in September 2014. Their recent takeover of the western countryside has now left the city fully encircled.
The blockade affects about 1.5 million people living in Taiz City, along with residents of the governorate’s rural districts. Around 180,000 displaced people are also trapped by ongoing clashes along the main road connecting Lahj and Taiz.
Salah Ahmed Ghaleb al-Majidi, acting director of the governorate’s Siege Affairs Department, described the situation as “the worst catastrophic siege imposed on a Yemeni city since the war began in 2014”. He said food, fuel, medical supplies and water are not getting into the city, while rubbish that cannot be taken to landfill outside is piling up on the streets.
Al-Majidi said the closure of major access roads had effects well beyond the shortage of humanitarian supplies. “The impact has reached deep into local communities, threatening family cohesion,” he said. Families have struggled to reach relatives because both main and secondary roads between the Taiz countryside and the city have been cut by the Houthis.
Ahmed’s own journey home illustrated the problem. After travelling from Saudi Arabia to Aden, the family boarded a shared vehicle bound for Taiz. With the main Hayjat al-Abd–al-Turbah route closed, passengers had to take a rough secondary road instead. Ahmed said they passed nearly 20 new checkpoints set up by the Houthis in the western countryside. About 15 kilometres from the city’s final entrance, a Houthi checkpoint halted them, and they joined a long queue of vehicles. Ahmed said they were told there had been clashes on the road and were ordered to turn back and try again the next day.
His wife, known as Umm Adam, said the trip was dangerous. “When we decided to return in the middle of the fighting, we knew perfectly well that it was a risky decision, especially with our children, the youngest of whom is not yet five years old,” she said. “But we had no choice. There were no other options.”
The family spent two more days in a small rural hotel. Umm Adam said nine women were crammed into one room with the children, while the men were placed in another. Her husband said the family paid 100 Saudi riyals ($26.66) for each night there. The fare for the trip had also jumped. Before fighting resumed, the family paid 35 Saudi riyals ($9.33) per passenger to leave for Aden, but on the return journey the fare had risen to 100 Saudi riyals ($26.66) per passenger.
The siege has pushed up prices for goods and services across the board, hitting lower-income Yemenis hardest.
Patients cut off from hospitals and treatment abroad
The blockade has also stopped residents of the rural belt around Taiz from reaching health centres in the city. Taysir al-Samei, information officer at the governorate’s health office, said access to the city’s hospital had dropped by between 60 and 70 percent by the end of the second week of the siege.
Hospitals in Taiz face severe shortages of medical supplies because of the fighting, and they lack the fuel needed to keep essential services running. Residents inside the city also cannot leave Yemen for treatment.
One patient, a young journalist identified only by the initials “T F”, spoke on condition of anonymity. He has suffered for years from chronic immune-related inflammation that affects his liver enzymes, and he had previously travelled to Cairo to see a specialist familiar with his condition. He said his illness worsened as the Houthi offensive reached the outskirts of Taiz and the western coast, and he had already arranged a doctor and made preliminary flight bookings.
By the time Houthi forces approached the city centre, his condition had deteriorated further. Laboratory tests showed his liver enzyme levels had reached a critical point, at 32 times the normal range. His doctor urged him to seek urgent treatment abroad. He said that leaving the city would be “almost impossible” because of his media reporting opposing the Houthis. “The only exit is now in the hands of the enemy,” he said.
