Taiz governor says city faces famine as Houthi siege drags on

Taiz Governor Nabil Shamsan said on 30 October 2026 that the Houthis were trying to send the city back to the stone age. He made the remarks in a briefing meant to urge the international community to do more to lift a month-long siege of Yemen's third city (The Guardian).

A siege is a situation in which armed forces surround a place and restrict what can get in or out. In Taiz, Shamsan said, Houthi forces have a near-total grip on the roads into the city. He said they had given the more than 800,000 people inside a choice "either to leave or to die."

Water has become one of the most urgent problems. Taiz's minimum daily water needs are estimated at about 35,000 cubic metres, yet no more than 1,000 cubic metres a day was being allowed to reach the city, according to the Guardian's reporting. Shamsan said water shipments were being stopped at Houthi roadblocks around the city, and that oxygen and water supplies were running out.

Food and fuel are also short. Shamsan said food stocks were depleted, wheat prices were soaring and restaurants had closed for lack of fuel. He also said rubbish was piling up in the streets because landfill sites were either full or inaccessible. He has said, "The city is in famine, not on the brink of it."

Health services have been badly affected. Shamsan said as many as 1,800 people needing dialysis could not get the treatment supplies they required. He said 120 health centres had been suspended and schools had closed, affecting hundreds of thousands of children.

Shamsan also gave casualty figures. He said 64 people, including civilians, were killed in Taiz between August and 20 October 2026, and 173 were injured. He said more than 6,400 newly displaced families, averaging seven members each, had arrived in the city to flee fighting.

The Houthi leader, Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi, has denied that there is a siege. He said the way is open for food, medicine and humanitarian aid to enter Taiz.

Separately, the Houthi-run health ministry said a Saudi airstrike in western Taiz killed at least 13 people (The Washington Post).

The United Nations has raised alarms about the city for weeks. On 23 October, UN News reported deepening concern for Taiz as aid is blocked, and aid agencies warned of a fast-developing humanitarian emergency inside the city (UN News). In October, UN Assistant Secretary-General Mohamed Yahya told the Security Council that Yemen's humanitarian crisis had sharply worsened (UN Security Council).