Yemeni analyst: Houthis tightening siege on Taiz to suppress resistance
Yemeni political analyst Mohammed Balfakhr says Houthi forces have targeted Taiz for years, seeking to intensify the siege due to its role in resisting their rule.
The city of Taiz in southwestern Yemen, roughly 250 km south of the Houthi-controlled capital Sana'a, is now teetering on the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe. With a pre-war population of around 1.2 million, there are currently about 800,000 residents. The ongoing conflict between the Houthis and the official government, which resumed in July, has led to the Houthis launching a lightning offensive southward, aiming to cut off Taiz and isolate pro-government forces in Aden.
The Houthis have successfully blocked every primary route out of Taiz City, leaving it with an imminent crisis. Yemen, already a place of extreme poverty, now faces a dire situation as the Houthis have reintroduced slavery and devastated infrastructure, including the Hejat al-Abd road and parts of the main road to Aden. The World Food Program (WFP) estimates that over 18 million people in Yemen are facing acute food insecurity, with 2.2 million children under five facing severe malnutrition.
In Taiz, access to essential supplies such as wheat flour, water, and fuel is completely cut off, putting hospitals on the brink of running out of fuel. Without immediate action, thousands of patients at risk and the city's water supply dwindling, the looming disaster in Taiz appears to have no feasible solution, as UN Security Council appears disinterested.
Written by urgent.news from Jerusalem Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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