Yemen: Taiz Under Siege as Fighting Spreads and Death Toll Mounts

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk on October 20 called on the Houthi forces — the armed group also known as Ansar Allah, which is besieging the city of Taiz — to allow humanitarian aid into the city immediately or face the risk of catastrophe.

According to Turk, the Houthi closure of the only supply route linking Taiz to Aden is putting civilians in serious danger, blocking humanitarian aid and cutting off essential supplies. He stressed that aid must be allowed into the city at once and that movement must be facilitated; civilians who wish to leave must be permitted to depart freely and safely.

A city under siege

Taiz has been besieged repeatedly over the course of the war, and is now encircled once again by the Houthis after the group captured the main road connecting the city to southern Yemen.

The humanitarian situation in Taiz is reaching breaking point, with prices for essential goods rising several-fold amid shortages of some commodities. Continuing fighting in Taiz province has also killed at least 32 civilians between August 1 and October 19, including 14 children. Officials fear the toll could rise further as the fighting edges closer to the city.

Turk called on all parties to the conflict to avoid the use of wide-area explosive weapons in densely populated areas and to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians and civilian facilities.

Yemen's internationally recognized government has previously called on the United Nations to intervene and lift the blockade, warning that the Houthi siege threatens more than 4 million people. The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that shifting front lines and road closures have left 800,000 people unable to reach life-saving aid, most of them in Taiz; nationwide, more than 18 million Yemenis face severe food insecurity.

On October 19, forces loyal to the internationally recognized government carried out airstrikes in Taiz province, destroying Houthi reinforcements at Najd Qasim and a weapons depot at Jabal Habashi.

The Shabwah attack

On October 20, local officials raised to 73 the death toll from a Houthi attack on a military base in Shabwah province. The Houthi ballistic missile strike on the al-Alam camp on October 19 was condemned by the Yemeni government as a "bloody, treacherous act" and a war crime.

Rashad al-Alimi, chair of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council, formally asked the United Nations to place the Houthis on its list of "terrorist organizations."

Internationally, Britain said on October 20 that it would deploy fighter jets to help defend Saudi Arabia against Houthi attacks, after numerous cities and infrastructure sites were targeted with rockets and drones. The UK Ministry of Defence made clear that the Typhoon jets would play a "defensive role" only and would not carry out strikes in Yemen. Meanwhile, on October 19, Egypt's parliament postponed a vote on permitting its military to support Saudi Arabia in the war against the Houthis.

Ali al-Dahab, a military and security strategy expert, said that although there appears to be growing international support for the anti-Houthi coalition, this is unlikely to translate into ground forces in Yemen. He argued that the prospect of international forces fighting the Houthis on the ground is low, with the expected involvement limited to air and naval support.

Campaign and cross-border strikes

On October 5, the Yemeni army launched a large-scale operation dubbed "Yemen Dawn" aimed at reversing recent Houthi gains. While it achieved some initial successes, with hundreds of Houthi fighters reportedly killed in airstrikes, questions remain over whether these counter-offensives have run out of momentum.

Al-Dahab assessed that the shift from defense to offense on the ground remains limited, and that the government's area of influence in al-Marib has not expanded as much as the campaign implied. In his view, government forces need to exploit the gaps opened by airstrikes and drone attacks on Houthi ranks with a multi-directional campaign, particularly northwest toward Sanaa, to turn this into a strategic shift.

Intensified ground fighting in Yemen has also brought a wave of cross-border attacks between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi-led coalition said on October 20 that it had intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis toward Riyadh; the incident prompted Saudi Arabia's Civil Defense agency to activate early-warning systems across the capital. Over the past week, the Arab coalition has also carried out multiple airstrikes on Houthi positions across Yemen.

According to al-Dahab, strategically and over the long term, attritional airstrikes can significantly affect Houthi military infrastructure, facilities and equipment. However, he questioned whether the government can capitalize on these strikes on the western coast, where it is trying to retake areas lost to the Houthis, and whether government forces have the capacity to mount offensives toward Mocha or Hodeidah.