Yemeni rights group documents 61 violations against civilians in Taiz in 24 hours

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TAIZ, Yemen — A Yemeni rights group said it documented 61 violations against civilians and property in Taiz governorate over 24 hours, blaming Houthi forces.

The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms said five civilians were killed, among them women and an infant. It said 22 people were wounded, including seven women and six children.

The group said 21 homes and 12 vehicles were damaged. It also recorded attacks on several main and public roads.

The network said one man was killed inside his home in front of his family in Sama’a District. It said he had refused to let fighters use the house as a sniper position.

The state news agency Saba carried the report on Saturday.

Yemen Herald could not independently verify the account. It rests on the network’s own count. No second organisation has published a matching tally, and the Houthis had made no public comment on the report at the time of writing.

A separate count for the same period was lower. Anadolu Agency reported on Friday that two people were killed and seven wounded across Taiz.

Anadolu said one person died in Al-Turbah and another in Al-Dhabab, in rural Taiz, citing the same rights network. It attributed six injuries in the Old Airport and Wadi al-Qadi neighbourhoods of Taiz city to local sources speaking to Saba.

The two accounts cover overlapping ground and give different totals. Neither has been matched by an independent count.

Hans Grundberg, the UN special envoy for Yemen, said on Oct. 1 that he was “alarmed by developments in Taiz governorate, where fighting has significantly intensified.”

His office said it had received “deeply troubling reports” of casualties, damage to infrastructure and road closures affecting civilian movement.

“Civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected,” Grundberg said. “Every effort must be made to prevent further harm and ensure safe and unhindered access to people in need.”

He repeated a call on the Houthis to halt their offensive. He said he remained in contact with the Yemeni government and the group.

The National reported on Friday that fighting had reached residential neighbourhoods east of Taiz. Houthi forces captured the port of Mokha, about 100 kilometres away, on Sept. 9 after an offensive that began six days earlier.

Mokha lies roughly 75 kilometres north of the Bab al-Mandab strait. Its capture cut the road linking the port with Taiz.

Col. Majed al-Nazili, a spokesman for the Yemeni armed forces, said government warplanes carried out tens of air strikes on Houthi positions on the outskirts of the city.

He said the strikes killed dozens of fighters and destroyed vehicles and equipment. That claim has not been independently confirmed, and the Houthis dispute government accounts of their losses.

Displacement has risen with the fighting. The International Organization for Migration put the number displaced at more than 149,000, mostly from Taiz and Lahj governorates, and said it expected the figure to rise.

Government figures reported on Oct. 1 recorded nearly 147,000 people displaced across Yemen between Sept. 1 and Sept. 18. More than 80,000 of them arrived in Taiz.

The UN warned on Sept. 22 that displacement from the escalation could pass 230,000. Yemen already hosts 5.2 million internally displaced people, according to the UN.

The HALO Trust said on Oct. 1 that it had suspended mine clearance in Taiz and Mokha and moved staff and equipment to Aden.

Mara van der Kamp, the demining group’s Yemen country director, said mass displacement can push families into areas they do not know and cannot read for danger.

The organisation said landmines and unexploded ordnance killed 260 civilians in Yemen in 2024, among them 44 children. It said Yemen ranked third in the world for landmine casualties over the past decade.

It said it planned to send teams into Lahj and Al-Dhale governorates once security allowed.

Roads around Taiz have closed as front lines moved. The journey from the city to Aden, which took about two hours, now takes six hours or more.

“Road closures have caused indescribable human suffering in Taiz and elsewhere,” said Mohammed Radman, a displacement coordinator.

Ali Othman, a humanitarian activist, said most of the displaced families fled with nothing but the clothes they were wearing, and that many were living together and sharing tents.

Supply routes have narrowed with them. The closure of Mokha port disrupted deliveries inland. Yemen imports nearly 90 percent of its food, and a UN report recorded wheat and flour imports falling 48 percent month on month in August.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its March 2026 plan that more than 22 million people in Yemen needed assistance.

OCHA put the number of acutely food insecure at 18.3 million. It said more than 2.2 million children under five were acutely malnourished, 516,157 of them severely.

The agency sought $2.16 billion this year to reach 12 million people.

Front lines have divided Taiz since 2015, when Houthi forces and allied units encircled Yemen’s third-largest city.

The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms publishes periodic tallies of violations it attributes to the Houthis. Its reports are carried by Saba, which is run by the internationally recognised government.