Yemen02 October, 20263 min read
Yemen Fighting Escalates From Taiz To Sanaa As Houthis Seize Mounts
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Yemeni government forces push in Taiz as Saudi-led strikes target Houthis’ missiles and naval assets. Civilians suffer rising casualties and displacement; about 5 million internally displaced and growing humanitarian costs.
7 outlets told this the same way.
Taiz and Red Sea escalation
Yemeni government forces announced on Tuesday that they had taken control of new sites in the Hatib district south of Taiz Governorate, while the Taiz Axis leadership said armed forces and popular resistance seized Mount al-Manzura, al-Asharif, and Dhiabān Hifan. Yihya Sariq, the military spokesman for the Houthis, said the group’s forces continued operations in Taiz, and the Houthis announced the killing of a commander of a government brigade during the clashes. The Coalition to Support the Legitimacy said on Tuesday it destroyed a ballistic missile launch platform in Sanaa and a cache inside a mountainous site in Saada Governorate that it said housed 20 ballistic missiles.
Major General Turki al-Malki said a naval operation in Al Hudaydah Governorate destroyed weapons depots, unmanned explosive boats, and naval mines, and he said it fell within efforts to protect navigation in the Bab al-Mandab Strait. The General Authority of Civil Aviation in the Kingdom announced that Abdulaziz King Abdullah International Airport in Jizan and Najran International Airport were attacked on Monday evening, causing three minor injuries and material damage.
Humanitarian toll and displacement
The World Health Organization reported 959 deaths and 4,207 injuries since August due to the escalation, while the International Organization for Migration stated that more than 180,000 people have been displaced since August 1. The UN News agency said nearly 150,000 people had been forced from their homes, and it said fighting along the southwestern coast disrupted markets and restricted humanitarian access. Matthew Hollingworth, WFP Assistant Executive Director for Programme Operations, told journalists in Geneva that “What is beginning as a hunger crisis in Yemen could certainly compound a greater food security crisis far beyond its borders.”
UN News said WFP was stepping up operations in Yemen and had assisted more than 70,000 people across two of the biggest “displacement hotspots” in Lahaj and Taiz, providing hot meals and other assistance. UN News also said the fighting had cut off access to parts of Taiz and Hudaydah, preventing WFP and partners from accessing some 350,000 people in areas where they used to assist.
Food security stakes widen
The World Food Programme warned yesterday that ongoing fighting in Yemen “threatens a total collapse of food security” in the country, and it urged the international community to intensify its efforts to avoid a “grim future.” Matthew Holingworth told reporters in Geneva via video from Rome that “Hunger in Yemen is worsening today at a rapid pace before our eyes,” and he said the impact of the latest wave of insecurity on food security “portends extremely catastrophic consequences.” UN News said WFP warned that instability around the Bab al-Mandab Strait risks driving food prices higher and deepening food insecurity across a much bigger region, and it said “the world.”
UN News added that WFP said the Yemen crisis was happening at a time when Bab al-Mandab and two other “critical maritime choke points” – the Black Sea and the Strait of Hormuz - were under pressure. UN News said “today's humanitarian shock and supply chain disruptions can become tomorrow's global food crisis,” and it warned that the consequences could stretch beyond Yemen.