Fighting displaces over 281,000 in Yemen, UN aid agency says
The UN is calling for safe passage for aid to 800,000 people it says are trapped in Taiz, as damage to a key road forces supplies onto narrow mountain routes.
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The UN is calling for safe passage for aid to 800,000 people it says are trapped in Taiz, as damage to a key road forces supplies onto narrow mountain routes.
Fighting has displaced more than 281,000 people across Yemen since the beginning of August, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in an October 29 report by Al Jazeera. That nationwide displacement figure is distinct from the 800,000 people OCHA says are trapped inside Taiz, a city in southwestern Yemen.
OCHA warned that time was running out to deliver aid to the city. It said humanitarian access had become increasingly difficult over the preceding three weeks because of damage to a key road linking Taiz with southern governorates. Aid supplies now have to travel along narrow mountain routes.
Taiz was already effectively under siege during fighting in 2015. The UN brokered a two-month nationwide truce on April 2, 2022. The latest escalation followed the Houthis’ seizure of strategic territory along the Red Sea coast in September 2026, which prompted a government counteroffensive. Saudi Arabia then intensified strikes against the group.
The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, are an Iran-backed armed group fighting forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognised government, which Saudi Arabia supports. Fighting has focused on Jabal Sabr, the mountain overlooking Taiz. Government forces said they had repelled attacks on the Al-Aqroud front while trying to break the Houthi siege there.
The World Food Programme (WFP), the UN food agency, uses a different measure of access. In an October 14 announcement, it said it and its partners could not reach more than 600,000 aid-dependent people in Taiz, including more than 200,000 women and children. Its total of 800,000 people beyond reach also included communities on Yemen’s West Coast affected by access losses in early September.
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WFP said its monitoring showed wheat flour stocks were nearly exhausted and remaining market supplies might last only a short time if restrictions continued.
In a briefing covering October 10–21, the Studies and Economic Media Center (SEMC), which monitors local economic conditions, described Al-Dhubab Road as the city’s only land supply route. It said the road opened for just a few hours on an almost daily basis. Repeated closures disrupted trucks and residents, raised transport costs and led traders to reduce or postpone shipments.
The centre said limited wheat and flour shipments, together with traders’ existing stocks, had brought some essentials back to markets. Flour prices fell during its monitoring period but remained above their pre-escalation level.
| Period | Price |
|---|---|
| Before the latest military escalation | 38,000 |
| October 12, at some shops | 60,000 |
| By October 17, at most monitored shops | Around 50,000 |
SEMC warned that repeated closures could exhaust those supplies and drive prices back up. It also said fuel and essential-supply shortages threatened water and healthcare services. The centre cited local authorities’ allegation that the Houthis had prevented drinking-water tankers from entering from the Al-Dhubab wells, and relayed the Taiz Health Office’s warning that medicine, medical-solution and fuel shortages threatened patients with kidney failure and those in intensive care.
WFP said it had provided emergency assistance to more than 115,000 newly displaced people in places it could still reach. It said it was ready to expand assistance to as many as 1.5 million people as access allowed, but safe passage and immediate funding were critical to delivery.
OCHA called on the fighting parties not to target civilians or aid convoys and to allow safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access. SEMC called for fixed, publicly announced crossing hours on Al-Dhubab Road and unhindered passage for trucks, water tankers, patients and civilians.
WFP warned that without new funding it would have to significantly reduce assistance from November. It said it needed $268 million to sustain food assistance, nutrition programmes, school meals and other support in Yemen through 2027.
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