Taiz, Yemen's third-largest city, is again under full siege. Houthi forces captured the town of al-Turbah on October 4, severing the last main road connecting Taiz to government-held territory. A vital eastern crossing to Houthi-controlled areas — reopened under pressure in 2024 — has also been shut following attempted Houthi incursions. Every major artery into a city of nearly 3 million people is now closed. The immediate trigger was a Houthi offensive launched in early September along the Red Sea coast of Taiz governorate. The group seized the port city of Mocha and the strategic Dhubab district, which controls access to the Bab al-Mandeb strait — a chokepoint for 12 percent of global trade. A Saudi-backed government counteroffensive in October recovered some coastal ground, but the Houthis pivoted inland, tightening the noose around Taiz city itself. The economic impact has been instantaneous. A 20-litre container of petrol has tripled from 30,000 Yemeni riyals ($19) to 90,000 riyals ($58) on the black market. Wheat, flour, vegetable, and fruit prices have doubled. Residents are panic-buying, and traders — operating without market oversight — have begun hoarding essential goods. Taiz's streets are nearly deserted due to fuel scarcity. Local officials say this siege is more comprehensive than the 2015-16 blockade because it cuts not just main highways but most secondary roads connecting rural districts. The humanitarian math is grim. Approximately 2.8 million people were living in government-held areas of Taiz governorate before the offensive. Another 200,000 have been displaced by the coastal and rural fighting. Local planning director Nabil Jamil describes the situation as worse than 2015, when supplies reached the city only by donkey across mountain passes. Hospitals, medical services, and medicine access are all compromised. Students, patients, and government employees cannot travel. The Houthi calculus is partly strategic, partly punitive. Taiz has been the most hostile population center to Houthi control since the war began in 2014. Analyst Salman al-Maqrami argues the siege aims to break the cohesion of anti-Houthi forces and exact revenge on a defiant population. Capturing Taiz would also deliver a propaganda victory, demonstrating the group can threaten any government-held territory regardless of local resistance. Local authorities have sent a letter to the United Nations requesting assistance. Their priorities: opening safe corridors for civilians needing medical treatment, and allowing food and medicine into the city. As of reporting, they are still waiting for a response. Human rights lawyer Nabil Sharyan of the Justice for Rights and Development Organization has called on the international community to guarantee civilian access to basic needs, but no concrete intervention has materialized. The structural pattern is familiar and devastating. A well-armed non-state actor uses terrain control to weaponize access to food, fuel, and medicine against a civilian population. The extraction is not financial — it is existential. Every day the siege continues, 3 million people absorb costs they have no capacity to bear, while the international system processes letters and statements.
