AL-MUKALLA: In Yemen’s besieged city of Taiz, Raafat Al-Wafi and his family have begun rationing food and other essentials as a tightening blockade by the Iran-backed Houthis has disrupted supplies of food, fuel and clean drinking water.
“We are now eating canned food, such as tuna and other products, since no meat, chicken or fish have entered the city due to the siege,” Al-Wafi told Arab News from Taiz.
The Houthis have recently seized control of the remaining lifeline linking Taiz with the southern city of Aden and other Yemeni government-controlled areas, effectively tightening their decade-long siege of the city.
Residents and local officials warn that hundreds of thousands of people in Taiz are facing the threat of widespread hunger as food and other essential supplies disappear from markets and prices of food, fuel and cooking gas soar.
Al-Wafi said local authorities had stopped selling flour directly to residents, restricting supplies to bakeries in an effort to ration dwindling stocks. He added that the price of a 20-liter jerrycan of petrol had surged to more than 150,000 Yemeni riyals ($100) from 30,000 riyals.
“The price of a one-liter bottle of drinking water has increased from 500 riyals to 6,000 riyals. The situation is grave and getting worse. Canned food is still available on grocery shelves, but these supplies will soon be consumed by the city’s more than 1.5 million residents,” Al-Wafi said.
The Houthis have besieged Taiz since early 2015, when they seized control of the city’s main entrances but failed to advance into the city centre after encountering stiff resistance from government troops and allied fighters.
Since early this month, the Houthis have seized control of mountainous roads that had remained outside their control for more than a decade. Despite being steep and dangerous, these routes had served as the city’s last remaining lifeline, allowing residents and traders to bypass Houthi checkpoints and transport essential supplies into Taiz.
The population is difficult to pin down: there is no recent official citywide figure, while the UN’s World Urbanization Prospects puts it at about 1 million. Whatever the precise number, the Houthi advance has cut off supply routes relied on by a large urban population, leaving hundreds of thousands at risk as food and other essentials run short.
Residents say the Houthis have effectively sealed off the city, accusing the militia of trying to starve them into submission.
“The city streets are deserted, and market activity is extremely sluggish, reminiscent of the first day of Eid, when people leave the city for the countryside,” Al-Wafi, who works as a journalist, said.
In addition to the threats of hunger and thirst, residents are living in fear of heavy Houthi shelling, with thunderous explosions terrifying families across the city.
“The militia shells the city daily from all directions; we are completely encircled by the militia,” Al-Wafi said. “During the militia’s first siege, one could travel along mountainous roads to reach government-controlled areas, and goods could also enter through those routes. Now, there is no way to escape after the Houthis completely took control of the roads.”
Taiz is also facing a growing sanitation crisis, with piles of uncollected rubbish accumulating in the streets as fuel shortages prevent garbage collection trucks from operating.
Meanwhile, local medics say hospitals are running out of life-saving medicines, while many patients requiring urgent medical treatment are unable to reach health facilities because of the siege and ongoing fighting.
On Saturday, Yemen’s Ministry of Public Health and Population in Aden warned that the Houthi siege of Taiz risked triggering a humanitarian and health disaster, accusing the militia of obstructing the delivery of medicines and medical supplies to hospitals and other health facilities.
The ministry warned that unless the siege was lifted, emergency services, operating theatres, intensive care units, dialysis centres and neonatal care departments could be forced to close. Fuel shortages could also shut down hospital generators, immobilise ambulances and disrupt refrigeration systems used to store medicines and vaccines.
“The Ministry holds the Houthi militias responsible for the blockade, the obstruction of supplies and the resulting health and humanitarian consequences,” the ministry said in a statement carried by official media. “It demands the immediate lifting of the blockade, the reopening of supply routes and guarantees for the safe passage of patients, ambulances, medical personnel and humanitarian aid.”
At a press conference in Taiz, the province’s governor, Nabil Shamsan, urged the Yemeni government and the international community to intervene and pressure the Houthis to lift the siege. Shamsan accused the Houthis of deliberately starving the city to force its residents into submission.
“Today, we issue an urgent national and humanitarian appeal to break this suffocating siege and repel the aggression waged by the Houthi militia against the province,” Shamsan said.
He vowed that the city would resist the siege and the Houthis’ attempts to seize control of it.
“It [Taiz] will never be broken, nor will it be held hostage to siege, starvation or blackmail,” Shamsan said.
For Al-Wafi time is running out to save Taiz from the brink of a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. He urged the international community to intervene and break the Houthi siege.
“The call goes out to the world to confront this terrorist group that is besieging the citizens and using them as human shields within the city,” Al-Wafi said.