Taiz Cut Off as Yemen’s Health System Faces Collapse, UN Warns

NEW YORK CITY – The ongoing fighting in Yemen has sealed off all access routes to the southwestern city of Taiz, halting the delivery of goods and threatening the collapse of its health system, the UN announced Monday, as the number of internally displaced persons since August approaches 300,000.

“The situation in Taiz is especially concerning,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York. “All roads leading into the city have been closed because of the fighting, and no commercial supplies are reaching the area.”

Nearly 250,000 residents of the besieged city have been cut off from essential healthcare, including over 186,000 children under five and about 23,000 pregnant women, according to figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Dujarric added that twelve hospitals were on the brink of closure or had already reduced services due to shortages of fuel and essential supplies, coinciding with the recording of more than 1,400 cases of acute diarrhea and suspected cholera within a single week.

These new displacements add to the 5.2 million Yemenis already displaced before the current escalation in a nation of roughly 42 million people, according to OCHA. The agency and its health partners are coordinating a 90‑day emergency plan to sustain life‑saving services, restore disrupted healthcare, and reinforce disease surveillance.

Dujarric reiterated the UN’s call for all parties to the conflict to safeguard civilians and civilian infrastructure, respect international humanitarian law, and permit “safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access, including passage into Taiz.”

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