Prime Minister Shaya al-Zindani says Houthi siege of Taiz amounts to war crimes
Yemen Herald News 
ADEN, Yemen — Yemen’s prime minister said Houthi attacks on civilians in Taiz and the siege of the city amounted to war crimes, in a call with the governor on Wednesday.
Shaya al-Zindani said the crimes would not expire with time, and that those responsible would be held accountable, the state news agency Saba reported.
The account of the call rests on Saba, which the internationally recognised government runs. No independent confirmation of it has been published.
The Houthis dispute government accounts of the fighting in Taiz and of conditions in the governorate. They did not comment on al-Zindani’s remarks.
Governor Nabil Shamsan briefed the prime minister on the humanitarian situation and on public services in the governorate, according to the agency.
Shamsan described the effects of the siege and what he said were continuing violations against civilians, Saba reported.
Al-Zindani praised what he called the resilience of Taiz residents and the efforts of local resistance forces and the armed forces, the agency said.
He said Taiz remained at the forefront of the defence of the republic.
The prime minister said the government would keep working with local authorities to ease civilian suffering, improve the delivery of aid and meet the province’s urgent needs.
He called on the United Nations, the international community and humanitarian and human rights organisations to document violations, protect civilians and act to lift the siege.
Shamsan thanked him for the support, and said it strengthened residents’ determination, according to Saba.
The agency did not say how long the call lasted. It reported no new measures agreed between the two men.
Al-Zindani became prime minister in January, when he moved from the foreign ministry.
The call followed a public appeal by Shamsan on Sunday for national and international action to lift the siege.
Shamsan said then that the siege had lasted 12 years. He asked for food, medicine and fuel to be brought in, and for help for hospitals and other facilities.
He also asked local authorities in other governorates, business leaders and civil society groups to organise relief convoys.
Taiz has become the focus of the current fighting. The International Organization for Migration recorded 217,303 people displaced across Yemen between Aug. 1 and Oct. 12.
Taiz accounted for 55 percent of that total, the agency said, making it the worst affected governorate in the country.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported a similar scale on Oct. 12, citing IOM. It put the figure at about 216,000 people, including more than 172,000 from Taiz.
OCHA said road closures were disrupting civilian movement, commercial supplies and aid deliveries. It named the Taiz-Aden road among the routes affected.
Local authorities reported sharp price rises and fuel shortages that threatened health and water services, according to the office.
The UN human rights office recorded at least 54 civilians killed and 171 injured in Yemen since August, OCHA said. It said half the dead were children.
Aid agencies have reached about 143,000 people with emergency assistance, including food, hygiene kits and cash, the office said.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said at the end of September that five of the ten displacement sites it supports in Taiz had emptied as the fighting drew closer. Families moved on to other sites and villages, it said.
Nearly 15,000 newly displaced people had reached the sites the council supports in Taiz, Lahj and Abyan by then, a rise of 78 percent on the numbers held before the escalation.
“New families are arriving by the hour, many moving from one displacement site to another,” said Alison Bottomley, the council’s advocacy adviser in Yemen. She said families were arriving with nothing.
The council said new sites were needed in Taiz for a further 1,000 families, and that it was moving limited funds between communities to keep up.
Nearly three in four newly displaced households lack adequate shelter, according to OCHA figures cited by the council. It said Yemen’s humanitarian response for 2026 was just over 20 percent funded as of September.
Funding cuts have closed 72 percent of safe spaces for women and girls, OCHA said. It put the immediate need at 73,000 dignity kits.
The government opened an offensive against the Houthis this month. It announced the campaign, which it calls Operation Dawn of Yemen, on Oct. 4, and said the aim was to reverse Houthi territorial gains.
Government forces, backed by Saudi Arabia, have reported advances near the Bab al-Mandab strait. Competing battlefield claims from the two sides are difficult to verify independently.
Hans Grundberg, the UN special envoy for Yemen, told the Security Council on Friday that the country had slid back into full-scale war, with civilians bearing the brunt.
The United Nations humanitarian response plan for Yemen, issued in March, said more than 22 million people needed assistance. It recorded 18.3 million people as acutely food insecure.
The plan counted more than 2.2 million children under five as acutely malnourished, including 516,157 with severe acute malnutrition.
It listed 5.2 million internally displaced people before the current escalation, and sought 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million of them.
Saba did not report any response from the Houthi administration in Sanaa. It did not say when the two men had last spoken.
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