Yemen’s Taiz Faces Looming Healthcare Collapse as Houthi Siege Strangles Supply Lines

Medical facilities in the besieged southwestern city are on the brink of shutdown as fuel, medicine, and oxygen supplies dwindle to critical levels.

Yemen’s internationally recognized government has warned of an imminent health and humanitarian catastrophe in Taiz, where Houthi forces continue to tighten a blockade that is choking off essential supplies.

In a statement released Saturday, the Ministry of Public Health and Population reported that stocks of medicines, intravenous fluids, medical consumables, and fuel at the city’s health facilities are nearing total depletion.

The ministry cautioned that emergency care, surgical operations, intensive care units, dialysis centers, and neonatal services face imminent closure if the blockade persists, placing patients, the wounded, pregnant women, and newborns at immediate risk.

Fuel shortages also jeopardize the electricity generators powering hospitals, the ambulances transporting the injured, and the cold-chain systems preserving vaccines and temperature-sensitive medicines—a breakdown that could trigger severe complications and preventable deaths.

Authorities demanded the immediate lifting of the siege and the reopening of supply corridors to guarantee safe passage for patients, ambulances, medical staff, and humanitarian aid. The ministry appealed directly to the United Nations and international aid organizations to urgently deliver medicines, IV fluids, medical supplies, oxygen, and fuel to the city’s collapsing health infrastructure.

“Every delay increases the risk of service interruption and loss of life,” the ministry statement emphasized.

Renewed Siege

The Houthis, an armed group backed by Iran and formally known as Ansar Allah, seized the capital Sanaa by force in 2014 and established a rival administration. They currently control Yemen’s northern and northeastern regions.

Taiz previously endured a devastating Houthi siege between 2015 and 2016, when government forces were confined to a central enclave. Although that siege was broken in 2016, the Houthis maintained a partial blockade via alternative access routes. A 2024 agreement to reopen an eastern corridor collapsed after fighting resumed.

The current stranglehold took shape in early October. In September, Houthi forces launched an offensive along the Red Sea coast of Taiz governorate, capturing the port city of Mocha. By October 4, they had seized the town of At Turbah, severing the last primary road linking Taiz city to other government-held territories.

Yemeni government forces, backed by Saudi Arabia, initiated a counteroffensive in early October.

Nabil Jamil, director-general of the government’s planning and development office in Taiz governorate, told Al Jazeera that the current blockade is “more comprehensive and its impact more severe than in 2015.”

He estimated that roughly 2.8 million people reside in government-held areas of the governorate, alongside 200,000 recently displaced individuals. Fuel has become acutely scarce; on the black market, the price of a 20-liter (5.2-gallon) container of petrol has tripled, surging from 30,000 Yemeni riyals ($19) to 90,000 ($58).

“We are still waiting for a response or intervention on the ground,” Jamil said.

The UN refugee agency and the World Health Organization have warned that the escalating conflict is pushing Yemen’s fragile health system toward total collapse.

“Civilians must never be turned into a means of exerting pressure in any conflict,” said Nabil Sharyan, a lawyer and head of the Justice for Rights and Development Organization.

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