Aid blockade leaves Taiz short of food, water and medicine

More than 800,000 people in Yemen’s Taiz area have been cut off from food assistance since access roads closed in early October, UN agencies said. About 600,000 depend on humanitarian aid. OCHA reported that little fuel, food or medicine had entered the city for 20 days by 23 October, while water production had fallen by roughly half and trucked-water prices had tripled.

Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that the Houthi encirclement and attacks on the remaining supply route had sharply worsened shortages. It interviewed residents, doctors and civil-society workers and said wheat flour, cooking gas, medicines and hospital oxygen were running low. A Houthi spokesperson told the group that government forces, not Houthi forces, were blocking roads. UN officials and the residents interviewed attributed the restrictions primarily to the Houthis.

Sieges are not automatically unlawful, but parties must allow humanitarian relief and may not use civilian starvation as a method of warfare. HRW said the conduct may meet that threshold; this is a legal assessment, not a court judgment. Restored aid access, functioning water pumps and safe passage for patients are the immediate measures of whether conditions improve.