Taiz, Yemen – Taiz is under siege, but 37-year-old Iskandar Abdullah already knows what it’s like to live under one.
The city, a major population centre in Yemen’s southwest, endured a devastating Houthi siege between 2015 and 2016, as the Iranian-backed group attempted to capture the city from local pro-government forces. The Houthis continued to maintain a partial siege in the following years through their control over other access points into the city.
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“They were difficult days,” Abdullah recalls, even as the Houthis begin a new siege on Taiz following their capture of territory to the south of the city, cutting off the main road to government-held territory. “We witnessed the horrors of the siege and experienced the bitterness of life in all its terrifying details.”
“I hope those painful days never return.”
In early September, the Houthis launched an offensive along the Red Sea coast of Taiz governorate. The group soon established full control over the port city of Mocha and the district of Dhubab, where the Bab al-Mandeb strait – through which 12 percent of global trade passes – is located.
The Houthis, who have controlled Yemen’s populous northwest, including the capital Sanaa, since the country’s war started in 2014, did not stop their military attacks at the Red Sea. Even as government forces, backed by Saudi Arabia, began a counteroffensive in early October and regained some of the territory lost, the Houthis pressed forward in the countryside surrounding Taiz.
The Houthis successfully captured the town of al-Turbah by October 4, severing the only remaining main road between Taiz city and other government-held areas.
Taiz residents, like Abdullah, are now worried that the city is about to face a prolonged full-scale siege. Abdullah remembers how difficult life was between 2015 and 2016, when pro-government forces were confined to an enclave in the centre of the city.
Locals endured “horrors, as well as appalling humanitarian and economic conditions unlike anything experienced by any other Yemeni governorate during the war”, according to Abdullah.
“People lacked even the most basic necessities of life, including drinking water, food, fuel and medicine,” he said. “The only exceptions were supplies smuggled across rugged mountain terrain, carried on the backs of people and donkeys, including oxygen cylinders for the sick and wounded.”
Shortages
The siege was eventually broken in 2016 when pro-government forces recaptured territory south of Taiz city. In 2024, under domestic and international pressure, the Houthis agreed to reopen another important route into the city from the east, connecting it to Sanaa and other Houthi-controlled areas of northern Yemen.
However, with the recent resumption of fighting, the vital crossing has been closed following attempted incursions by Houthi fighters, according to security sources who spoke to Al Jazeera.
The closure has severed a crucial route that had become essential for Taiz residents – much of the city’s food supplies had entered through the crossing.
Nabil Jamil, director-general of the planning and development office in Taiz governorate, said that the current siege on Taiz is “more comprehensive and its impact more severe than in 2015”.
“This time, the siege does not only affect the governorate’s main roads, but also most of the secondary roads connecting the rural districts themselves,” Jamil said.
Jamil said that approximately 2.8 million people had been living in government-held areas of Taiz governorate, alongside another 200,000 people who have been recently displaced by the fighting along the coast and rural Taiz.
“All of them will face humanitarian hardship and deteriorating living conditions as a result of the siege,” he said.
Less than a week into the renewed siege, the city’s streets appeared almost deserted because of a fuel shortage, which had previously entered the city through the al-Turbah route from Aden.
On the black market, the price of a 20-litre (5.2-gallon) container of petrol rose from 30,000 Yemeni riyals ($19) to 90,000 Yemeni riyals ($58).
Meanwhile, markets and grocery shops have seen a surge in demand, as residents rush to stock up on food amid fears that supplies would disappear from shelves because of the siege.
Some residents have accused traders of hoarding and monopolising essential goods in the absence of any effective market oversight.
“Food markets in Taiz have witnessed a noticeable increase in the prices of basic commodities, particularly wheat and flour, while the prices of vegetables and fruits have doubled, as the siege has made it difficult to bring these products into the city,” said Wafiq Saleh, a journalist specialising in economic affairs.
“Traders in the city have food stocks sufficient to last several months,” he added. “Nevertheless, some traders began raising prices as soon as the fighting intensified on the outskirts of the city.”
Humanitarian fears
Fighting is continuing in the Taiz countryside, and there is hope among locals that government forces will be able to retake the areas lost to the Houthis in recent days, or continue their forward momentum in areas to the west of Taiz city, and break the siege from that direction.
But for now, the Houthis appear to be on the front foot in the areas to Taiz city’s south.
Salman al-Maqrami, a journalist specialising in Houthi affairs, believes the primary objective of the Taiz siege is to undermine the cohesion of the forces opposed to them in the city, which has long been a hotbed of hostility towards the group.
“Therefore, there is no doubt that [the Houthis] are seeking revenge against this population that opposes them,” he added.
The fall of Taiz would also be symbolic for the Houthis, allowing the group to present itself as being able to threaten any area under government control, even if the population is hostile.
However, Nabil Sharyan, a lawyer and the head of the Justice for Rights and Development Organization (JRDO), pointed out that the effect of any such battle for Taiz – including a longstanding siege on such a large city – would be detrimental to civilians.
“Civilians must never be turned into a means of exerting pressure in any conflict,” Sharyan said.
He warned of the enormous humanitarian cost of the renewed siege, “particularly for patients, children, women and the elderly, given the difficulties in accessing hospitals, medical services, and medicines”.
“Restrictions on travel and movement will also affect students, patients, employees and families who depend on travelling between different areas of the governorate and beyond,” he added.
Sharyan called on the international community, human rights organisations and humanitarian agencies to take a clear position that “guarantees residents access to their basic needs, ensures that roads and crossings remain open to civilians and goods, and allows patients to reach healthcare services, in a manner that safeguards human dignity and fundamental rights”.
Jamil said that local authorities in Taiz had sent a letter to the United Nations seeking assistance in addressing the crisis and its humanitarian consequences.
Local authorities’ priorities include opening safe roads and corridors for civilians, especially those who need to travel for medical treatment, and allowing medicine and food to reach Taiz.
“We are still waiting for a response or intervention on the ground,” Jamil said.
