A fresh Houthi blockade has cut off Yemen's southwestern city of Taiz from government-controlled territory, driving up fuel and food prices and leaving roughly three million people facing severe shortages.
Houthi forces severed the final main road linking Taiz to other government-held areas after seizing the town of al-Turbah on October 4. The advance followed a wider campaign launched in early September along the Red Sea coast, where the group seized the port of Mocha and the district of Dhubab near the Bab al-Mandeb strait. Although Saudi-backed government forces mounted a counteroffensive in early October to regain lost territory, the Houthis pressed forward in the rural areas surrounding Taiz.
Access from the east has also been cut off. A crossing connecting Taiz to Sanaa and northern areas—which had reopened in 2024 following domestic and international pressure—was shut down after attempted incursions by Houthi fighters, according to security sources.
The closures have brought severe economic disruption inside the city. Street traffic has dwindled due to an acute fuel deficit, with black-market prices for a 20-litre container of petrol jumping from 30,000 Yemeni riyals ($19) to 90,000 riyals ($58). Markets and grocery stores have seen panic buying, with the cost of staple goods such as wheat and flour rising sharply, while prices for vegetables and fruit have doubled.
Local officials warn that the current blockade could surpass the devastation of the 2015 to 2016 siege, when pro-government forces were trapped in a central enclave before breaking out to the south. Nabil Jamil, director-general of the planning and development office in Taiz governorate, said the blockade is "more comprehensive and its impact more severe than in 2015".
Jamil said about 2.8 million people living in government-held sectors of the governorate, alongside roughly 200,000 civilians recently displaced by fighting in coastal and rural zones, will suffer deteriorating living conditions as secondary and rural roads are also cut.
Rights advocates have appealed for urgent access for civilians and essential supplies. Nabil Sharyan, head of the Justice for Rights and Development Organization, warned of severe consequences for healthcare and mobility, insisting that "civilians must never be turned into a means of exerting pressure in any conflict."
