Time ‘running out’ to reach Yemen’s Taiz amid deepening crisis, UN says

The United Nations has warned that time is running out to reach Yemen's besieged city of Taiz, where more than 800,000 people have been cut off from humanitarian aid since Houthi rebels encircled the city in early October.

"It's 20 days and counting since Taiz has been cut off," Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN's humanitarian office, told reporters on Friday, as the agency said it was "desperately trying to regain access" to the southwestern city.

The Iran-backed Houthis have blocked the road linking Taiz to the outside world since early October, and little fuel, food or other supplies have reached residents since. Most people depend on water trucked into the city, the cost of which has tripled, Laerke said. About three-quarters of those cut off depend on aid to survive.

Hospitals in Taiz province are reporting critical shortages of fuel, oxygen and medicine, while fighting has intensified in recent days, with clashes reported in the Jabal Han highlands and the Dhubab and al-Masrakh districts. The violence has deepened an ongoing hunger crisis, with UN screenings finding rising malnutrition among children.

In response to the humanitarian fallout, the European Commission said on Friday that it would release emergency funding for Yemen's aid operations.

Yemen has been at war since the Houthis seized Sanaa in 2014. A UN-brokered truce held from 2022 until it collapsed in July, and the ensuing escalation has displaced nearly 260,000 people, mostly in Taiz and Lahij provinces. At least 1,574 people have been killed and 6,939 wounded since August.