Foreign Minister Afrah al-Zouba asks UN bodies to press for end to Taiz siege

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ADEN, Yemen — Yemen’s foreign minister wrote to the United Nations on Wednesday demanding urgent measures to lift the Houthi siege of Taiz, the state news agency said.

Afrah al-Zouba, the minister of foreign affairs and expatriates, sent the letter to the UN secretary-general and to the president of the Security Council, the agency, Saba, reported.

It also went to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Saba said.

The letter was sent on behalf of the government, according to the agency.

The account of the letter rests on the foreign ministry’s own announcement, carried by Saba. Yemen Herald found no independent confirmation of its contents.

The letter warns that a tightened siege on Taiz and surrounding villages could cause a humanitarian catastrophe affecting more than four million people, according to the agency.

That figure covers residents inside the city and people displaced from outlying districts, Saba said.

The letter names Al-Shamayatayn, Al-Mawasit and Jabal Habashi among the districts affected.

Al-Zouba called for “practical, tangible measures to end the siege,” according to the agency.

She asked for direct international pressure to end the blockade immediately.

The letter seeks the reopening of all access routes into Taiz, for civilians and for supply traffic.

It asks for guarantees of sustained, unimpeded deliveries of food, fuel and drinking water, Saba said.

The minister sought stronger monitoring and documentation, so that evidence is preserved and those responsible are held to account.

She also asked for a clear international position against depriving civilians of necessities or using their needs as leverage, according to the agency.

The government pledged to cooperate with the United Nations and its partners, to share data and to facilitate aid deliveries, Saba said.

Yemen Monitor, a Yemeni news site, reported that Houthi forces had tightened the blockade for nearly a week and cut a supply route between Taiz and Aden.

The Houthis denied that account, the site said.

The government describes the movement’s conduct around the city as a siege. The Houthi administration in Sanaa disputes government accounts of the fighting.

Taiz governor Nabil Shamsan appealed on Oct. 12 for action to lift the siege, Saba reported at the time.

Prime Minister Shaya al-Zindani said on Wednesday that attacks on civilians in Taiz and the siege of the city amounted to war crimes, in a call with the governor, according to the agency.

The European Union called on the Houthis on Thursday to lift the siege and allow food, water, medicine and fuel into the city, Saba said, citing a post by the bloc on the platform X.

About 600,000 people in Taiz have no access to food assistance, including 200,000 women and children, the World Food Programme said in remarks carried by Reuters on Wednesday.

Roughly 800,000 people across Yemen have lost access to life-saving food aid as front lines shifted, according to the same report.

More than 18 million people in the country do not have enough to eat, the agency said.

Seventy-four percent of households in areas the agency can reach cannot meet their daily food needs, a level it called a record.

El-Khidir Daloum is the World Food Programme’s country director in Yemen.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said health facilities in Marib, Taiz and along the Red Sea coast are overwhelmed.

Some recorded more than 700 cases in a single week, the organisation said.

The UN humanitarian office sought $2.16 billion this year to reach 12 million people in Yemen.

The siege of Taiz began in early 2015, according to Yemen Monitor. Government forces breached parts of it the following year.

Al-Zouba pressed for firm international action against the Houthis in a call on Sunday with Neil Hop, the U.S. chargé d’affaires to Yemen, Saba reported.

Yemen’s cabinet approved a draft law on Oct. 12 designating the Houthis a terrorist organisation, according to the agency.

The government asked the Security Council last week to condemn missile and drone attacks it attributes to the movement, Saba said.

The World Food Programme linked the loss of food access to shifting front lines between government forces, which are backed by Saudi Arabia, and Houthi forces.

Houthi forces took the town of al-Turbah by Oct. 4, cutting the last main road between Taiz city and other government-held areas, Al Jazeera reported.

The movement had opened an offensive along the Red Sea coast of Taiz governorate in early September and taken the port city of Mocha and the Dhubab district, according to the same report.

A crossing the Houthis agreed to reopen in 2024, linking Taiz to Sanaa and areas to the north, has since closed, Al Jazeera said, citing security sources. Much of the city’s food had come through it.

About 2.8 million people live in government-held parts of Taiz governorate, said Nabil Jamil, director-general of the planning and development office there.

A further 200,000 have been displaced recently by fighting on the coast and in rural districts, Jamil told Al Jazeera.

He described the current siege as more comprehensive than the one imposed in 2015.

On the black market, a 20-litre container of petrol rose from 30,000 Yemeni riyals to 90,000, Al Jazeera reported this month.

Saba did not say whether the United Nations had responded to the letter.