In the Yemeni city of Taiz, more than 900,000 people are living through a siege that has pushed ordinary life past the edge of endurance, where an apple has become a rarity and a container of fuel costs four times its former price. Houthi forces have encircled the city and severed most of the roads that once carried food, medicine and water into it, while fighting around the old airport has pressed deeper into crowded neighbourhoods. It is a crisis that belongs to a longer story of a poor nation worn down by years of war, now meeting a shrinking world of donors who are themselves stepping back
Taiz Faces 'Unmanageable' Crisis as Houthi Siege Cuts Off Water, Fuel and Food
Hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped in Taiz amid casualties from missiles, shortages of medicine, water and food, and people dying in hospitals without treatment.
People are searching for apples and cannot find any fresh fruit
Mark
Why is Taiz the focus right now?
Mimi
Because the siege has squeezed almost everything at once. Fuel hasn't come in for two or three weeks, flour is nearly gone, and water is scarce even for aid staff.
Mark
What does a price like $80 for petrol tell us?
Mimi
That the only supply left is the hidden market. Petrol that cost about $20 before the crisis now sells at four times that, and potatoes have doubled.
Luke
Worth noting where those accounts come from. The conditions inside the city are relayed by Oxfam staff through one advocacy manager, Fatma Jaffar. They're credible, but they're secondhand and not independently verified in this reporting.
Mark
And the fear of cholera?
Mimi
Garbage can't be taken out of the city, so residents are burning it. Jaffar said that makes disease something they expect in the near future.
Luke
Right, that's a warning, not a confirmed outbreak. No casualty figures are given either, only descriptions like very high.
Mark
How does the funding picture fit in?
Mimi
Only 23% of the UN's Yemen programme is funded. The UK, US and Germany have all cut back, and pressure is on Saudi Arabia to cover the gap.
Luke
And the idea that Taiz's resistance could drain Houthi resources is an assessment, not an established fact. Nothing here suggests a ceasefire is near either.
El Pulso
- Houthi forces have largely encircled Taiz, and the roads carrying food, fuel and medicine into a city of 900,000 have been cut off.
- Fighting around the old airport is hitting dense residential areas, and wounded people cannot be evacuated through the blockade.
- Residents are burning piled-up garbage as it cannot leave the city, and aid workers fear cholera is coming fast.
- With donors covering just 23% of the UN relief programme and neither side ready for a ceasefire, aid is struggling to reach the trapped population.
In the Yemeni city of Taiz, more than 900,000 people are living through a siege that has pushed ordinary life past the edge of endurance, where an apple has become a rarity and a container of fuel costs four times its former price. Houthi forces have encircled the city and severed most of the roads that once carried food, medicine and water into it, while fighting around the old airport has pressed deeper into crowded neighbourhoods. It is a crisis that belongs to a longer story of a poor nation worn down by years of war, now meeting a shrinking world of donors who are themselves stepping back. The question hanging over it is whether the city's people can be reached before the losses become irreversible.
In Taiz, a city of more than 900,000 people, the markets have run bare. Residents search for ordinary things, like fresh fruit, and often come back with nothing, even when they have money. Oxfam staff on the ground say fuel has not arrived for two or three weeks, and even Oxfam's own employees are struggling to buy drinking water.
The cause is an encirclement. Houthi forces have largely surrounded the city and cut most of its supply routes, and heavy fighting this week around the old airport has damaged a densely populated area. Hospitals are running short of medicine, and people dying from wounds that might once have been treated. Wounded people cannot be moved out, and garbage cannot be taken beyond the city limits, so residents are burning it. Aid workers expect cholera soon.
The prices tell the same story. A 20-litre container of petrol that cost about $20 now sells for $80 on the black market, and potatoes have doubled in price. The World Food Programme says flour reserves were nearly exhausted by mid-October. The Halo Trust says 30 of its staff are among those trapped inside.
The siege is part of a wider escalation that began in July, when airstrikes on a Houthi-held airport broke a 2022 ceasefire. Money for relief is also thin. Donors have covered only 23% of the UN Yemen programme this year, and funding from the UK, the US and Germany has been cut sharply. Diplomats are still trying to mediate, but neither the Houthis nor the internationally recognised government shows any readiness for a ceasefire. For Taiz, the question that matters most is whether water, fuel, food and medicine can get in.
In Taiz, a city of more than 900,000 people in Yemen, residents are now searching the markets for something as ordinary as an apple and not finding one. Oxfam staff on the ground describe a place where fresh fruit has vanished, fuel has not arrived for two or three weeks, and even people with money cannot buy what they need.
The cause is a near-total encirclement. Iran-allied Houthi forces have largely surrounded the city and cut most of its supply routes. This week heavy fighting has raged around the city's old airport, damaging a densely populated residential area. Fatma Jaffar, Oxfam's Yemen-based advocacy manager, relayed what local staff told her: all the main entrances are blocked, clashes continue and casualties are very high. Even Oxfam's own staff are struggling to buy drinking water.
Hospitals are short of medicines, and Jaffar said many people are dying as a result. People wounded by missiles cannot be moved out of the city because of the blockade, though attempts have been made. Garbage is piling up because it cannot be taken beyond the city limits. Residents are trying to burn it, and Jaffar said that makes disease, cholera in particular, something aid workers expect soon. If access stays blocked, she warned, people across the city will die from missiles, hunger and illness linked to the lack of water. Yemen was already among the poorest countries on Earth before this escalation, she noted, and the situation is now becoming unmanageable.
The numbers on the market reflect the squeeze. A 20-litre container of petrol that cost about $20 before the crisis now fetches $80 on the hidden market, and potato prices have doubled. The World Food Programme said wheat flour reserves in the city were nearly exhausted as of mid-October. The Halo Trust, the world's largest humanitarian landmine-clearance organisation, said 30 of its staff are among the hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped inside.
The fighting has intensified since July, when forces loyal to the internationally recognised government and the Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes on the Houthi-held airport in Sana'a. That shattered a 2022 ceasefire deal that had largely stopped the fighting. The Houthi focus on Taiz reflects its strategic importance, although the level of resistance inside the city may drain the group's resources and weaken its response elsewhere.
The UN has called for aid workers to be given access to Taiz, and Oxfam has shifted its limited resources from development work to emergency response, including cash transfers. Money is also scarce. Donors have covered only 23% of the cost of the UN humanitarian relief programme for Yemen this year. The UK has allocated £104m a year for each of the next three years, down from £196m in 2020, and Oxfam in London is urging extra British aid. US aid has been virtually wiped out: the Trump administration's fiscal year 2027 budget request asks for no economic support or development assistance specifically for Yemen, compared with roughly $760m committed in the last year of Joe Biden's presidency. Germany, another leading funder, has halved its programme. Pressure is growing on Saudi Arabia, itself cash-strapped by the cost of war, to fill the gap.
On Tuesday the UK government allocated an unspecified sum in extra military help to Saudi Arabia to protect its airports and infrastructure. London has not yet decided whether to back a much more robust military response, including possible deployment of foreign ground troops to Yemen.
UN diplomats continue to mediate, but there is no sign that either the Houthis or the internationally recognised government is ready for a ceasefire, let alone a lasting settlement. For Taiz, that leaves the question of access, to water, fuel, food and medicine, as the one to watch.
Citas Notables
The situation was bad before the escalation, and now it is becoming unmanageable.— Fatma Jaffar, Oxfam advocacy manager in Yemen
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