Houthis’ monthlong siege on Taiz creating hell for trapped Yemenis

Taiz, Yemen – A week before the latest fighting erupted around Taiz, southern Yemen, Ahmed al-Mikhlafi left the city with his wife and three children to perform Umrah in Mecca.

But when the family returned, they found themselves stranded in the western countryside of Taiz, unable to reach the city where their home and Ahmed’s job were.

The Houthis’ siege on Taiz has now lasted 30 days and affected hundreds of thousands of people in the area. The United Nations has repeatedly warned of a catastrophe inside the city, where supplies of food and medicine are becoming increasingly scarce.

“While we were in Mecca, fighting broke out and our city was once again placed under a complete siege by the Houthis. We had no choice but to stay away and delay our return for more than two weeks, hoping the fighting would end and the siege would be lifted,” Ahmed, whose name has been shortened for security reasons, told Al Jazeera.

“But things did not go as we had hoped, so we decided to return and face whatever awaited us, regardless of the consequences.”

The Houthi siege on Taiz began with the seizure of al-Turbah, a town in the far southwest of Taiz governorate, cutting the city’s main artery with Aden and the outside world.

The Houthis reached the outskirts of Taiz in 2015, after pushing the government out of the capital, Sanaa, in September 2014, besieging it from the north, east and south. But in their recent takeover of the governorate’s western countryside, they have completely encircled the city.

The blockade has affected the 1.5 million people living in Taiz City, and others living in the governorate’s rural districts, including about 180,000 displaced people also trapped by ongoing clashes along the main road connecting Lahj and Taiz.

One month on, Salah Ahmed Ghaleb al-Majidi, acting director of the governorate’s Siege Affairs Department, described the situation as “the worst catastrophic siege imposed on a Yemeni city since the war began in 2014”. Food, fuel, medical supplies and water are not reaching the city as tonnes of rubbish unable to be sent to landfill outside are accumulating on the streets.

Al-Majidi said the closure of major access roads had consequences extending far beyond the disruption of humanitarian supplies of food, medicine and fuel to the city.

“The impact has reached deep into local communities, threatening family cohesion,” he told Al Jazeera. Families have faced severe difficulties reaching relatives due to both main and secondary roads between the Taiz countryside and the city being cut off by the Houthis.

Ahmed and his family have witnessed the impact of this first-hand. After returning from Saudi Arabia to Aden, he and his family boarded a shared passenger vehicle bound for Taiz. But with the main Hayjat al-Abd–al-Turbah route closed, the passengers were forced to take a rough secondary road to the city.

“We passed through nearly 20 new checkpoints that the Houthis had recently established after taking control of the western countryside of Taiz,” Ahmed said.

“At around midday, approximately 15 kilometres before reaching the final entrance to the city, a Houthi checkpoint stopped us.”

The family found themselves at the back of a long queue of vehicles heading for the city.

“They told us there were clashes along the road and ordered us to turn back and return the following day, when they would reconsider allowing us through if the fighting had stopped,” he said.

Ahmed’s wife, known as Umm Adam, said the route to Taiz was fraught with danger.

“When we decided to return in the middle of the fighting, we knew perfectly well that it was a risky decision, especially with our children, the youngest of whom is not yet five years old,” she told Al Jazeera. “But we had no choice. There were no other options.”

The family spent another two days waiting in a small rural hotel until they could continue their journey.

“There were nine women crammed into a single room with our [three] children, while the men were placed in another room,” Umm Adam said.

“And despite all that, we had to pay 100 Saudi riyals ($26.66) for every night we suffered through in that hotel,” her husband added.

The siege on Taiz has been met with a sharp increase in the prices of goods and services, affecting lower-income Yemenis the most.

“When we left the city for Aden, before the fighting resumed, we paid just 35 Saudi riyals [$9.33] per passenger. But when we returned, we were surprised to find that the fare had risen to 100 Saudi riyals [$26.66] per passenger,” Ahmed said.

The Houthi siege has also prevented residents of the rural belt that stretches around Taiz from reaching health centres in the city.

Taysir al-Samei, the information officer at the governorate’s health office, told Al Jazeera that access to the city’s hospital had fallen by between 60 and 70 percent by the end of the siege’s second week.

Hospitals in Taiz face severe shortages of medical supplies because of the fighting, along with a lack of the fuel needed to keep essential services running.

Residents inside the city have also been unable to leave Taiz for treatment outside Yemen.

Among the patients prevented from travelling abroad is a young journalist identified by the initials “T F”, who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity. He has suffered for years from chronic immune-related inflammation affecting his liver enzymes and previously travelled to Cairo for treatment with a specialist familiar with his condition. But the Houthi siege has changed all this.

“Recently, as the Houthi offensive began on the outskirts of Taiz and along the western coast, my illness worsened, so I decided to travel for treatment,” he said. “I had already contacted my specialist and started making preliminary flight reservations.”

By the time Houthi forces approached the city centre, his health had deteriorated further, and laboratory tests showed that his liver enzyme levels had reached a critical point, rising to 32 times the normal range.

Alarmed by the results, his doctor warned him to seek urgent medical treatment abroad. But due to his media reporting opposing the Houthis, the young journalist said that leaving the city will be “almost impossible”.

“The only exit is now in the hands of the enemy,” he said.