Taiz running out of essentials

Oxfam aid workers warn the besieged Yemeni city of Taiz is becoming unmanageable as water, fuel and fresh food run out. Iran-allied Houthi forces have largely encircled the city of more than 900,000 people.

Fighting intensifies around airport

Heavy fighting has raged around Taiz's old airport this week, causing extensive damage in a densely populated residential area.

International aid funding collapses

The UK has allocated just one hundred four million pounds in aid to Yemen for each of the next three years, down from one hundred ninety-six million pounds allocated in two thousand twenty.

Oxfam describes total siege

Fatma Jaffar, Yemen-based advocacy manager for Oxfam, said all main entrances to Taiz have been blocked.No fuel has entered for two or three weeks.Drinking water is a massive issue.Even people with money cannot buy food.

“All the main entrances have been blocked. The clashes are continuing and the casualties are very high.”

Hospitals failing, disease looming

Hospitals are struggling without medicines and many people are dying.Wounded cannot be transferred out because of the blockade.Garbage is piling up and burning, raising the risk of cholera.Prices have rocketed across the city.

Prices soar on black market

A twenty-litre container of petrol that cost about twenty dollars before the crisis is now worth eighty dollars on the hidden market.Potato prices have doubled.

No ceasefire in sight

UN diplomats are still mediating between the two sides, but there is no sign that either the Houthis or the internationally recognised government are ready for a ceasefire, let alone a long-term settlement.