Medical services in Taiz risk shutting down as fuel, medicines, and supplies run alarmingly low under Houthi blockade.
Yemen’s internationally recognised government has warned of an “imminent health and humanitarian catastrophe” in the besieged city of Taiz, in the country’s southwest, as the Houthis continue their siege and “obstruct essential supplies”.
Yemen’s Ministry of Public Health and Population said in a statement on Saturday that medicines, intravenous fluids, medical supplies and fuel at the city’s health facilities were “nearing depletion”.
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It said emergency care, surgery, intensive care, dialysis and neonatal services could be forced to stop if the situation continued, putting patients, injured people, pregnant women and newborns “at immediate risk”.
Fuel shortages also threaten electricity generators, ambulances and the cold chains that keep medicines and vaccines usable, which could cause “severe complications and preventable deaths”, the ministry said.
It demanded the siege be lifted immediately, and supply routes reopened, with safe passage for patients, ambulances, health workers and aid.
It called on the United Nations and humanitarian organisations to “deliver medicines, intravenous fluids, medical supplies, oxygen and fuel” to the city’s health facilities.
“Every delay increases the risk of service interruption and loss of life,” the ministry said.
Renewed siege
The Houthis, an armed group backed by Iran and also known as Ansar Allah, seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, by force in ۲۰۱۴ and later imposed their own government. They control the country’s north and northeast.
Taiz endured a devastating Houthi siege between ۲۰۱۵ and ۲۰۱۶, when Yemeni government forces were confined to an enclave in the city centre.
The siege was broken in ۲۰۱۶, though the Houthis kept a partial blockade through other access points. In ۲۰۲۴, they agreed to reopen a route from the east, but it has been closed after fighting resumed.
The renewed siege took shape in early October.
The Houthis launched an offensive along the Red Sea coast of the Taiz governorate in September, capturing the port city of Mocha, and by October ۴ had taken the town of At Turbah, cutting the last main road between Taiz city and other government-held areas.
Yemeni government forces, backed by Saudi Arabia, began a counteroffensive in early October.
Nabil Jamil, director-general of the Yemeni government’s planning and development office in the Taiz governorate, told Al Jazeera the current siege is “more comprehensive and its impact more severe than in ۲۰۱۵”.
He said about ۲.۸ million people live in government-held areas of the governorate, along with ۲۰۰,۰۰۰ who have recently been displaced.
Fuel has become scarce, and on the black market, the price of a ۲۰-litre (۵.۲-gallon) container of petrol has risen from ۳۰,۰۰۰ Yemeni riyals ($۱۹) to ۹۰,۰۰۰ ($۵۸).
“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 fighting is putting Yemen’s fragile health system in peril.
“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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