Authorities in Yemen have recorded more than 5,000 cases of illness in Taiz province as fighting displaces thousands of families and municipal services collapse.
The Office for Siege Affairs reported that infectious diseases, respiratory illnesses, and fevers surged across the province. The health crisis worsened as uncollected garbage piled up in residential neighborhoods, streets, and drainage channels.
Ailan Abdel Haq, the deputy governor for health affairs, spoke on Tuesday regarding the sanitation crisis. He accused the Houthi group of blocking waste trucks from reaching a temporary landfill located west of the city.
Abdel Haq stated that Taiz has been cut off from its primary landfill for over eleven years. He urged United Nations agencies to intervene immediately to secure safe passage for the waste trucks and reopen the main disposal site.
Governor Nabil Shamsan reported that recent waves of displacement have pushed the total number of displaced families in the city to 39,400. This influx has placed severe pressure on municipal infrastructure and strained local services.
Violence in the province also claimed civilian lives. The Office for Siege Affairs stated that a mortar shell fired by Houthi forces struck a home in Al-Athawir village within the Hayfan district.
The strike killed a thirty-five-year-old woman and three girls aged three, seven, and twelve. Four additional civilians sustained injuries in the attack. Houthi officials did not offer an immediate response to the shelling.
Ayman al-Kamali, director of the independent Taiz Human Rights Center, stated that more than fifty civilians have been killed and dozens wounded. Casualties over the previous four weeks resulted from shelling, sniper fire, and landmine explosions across the province.
Government forces maintain control of Taiz city, while Houthi fighters occupy portions of the surrounding province. Yemeni human rights and aid organizations accuse the Houthis of maintaining a strict siege on the city and obstructing humanitarian aid convoys, allegations the group denies.
A wider military escalation between government forces and the Houthis resumed in July. United Nations reports indicate the renewed fighting has killed and wounded thousands of people while displacing over a quarter of a million individuals.
This renewed conflict ended a period of relative calm that had persisted in Yemen since April 2022. The humanitarian situation deteriorates as active combat and mass displacement persist across the country.
