More than 5,000 cases of illness recorded in October in Yemen's Taiz province amid fighting

Surge in illnesses and a new influx of displaced people

Authorities of the southwestern Yemeni province of Taiz registered 5,025 cases of illness in October, which they linked to the accumulation of garbage in the city of Taiz. As reported by the Anadolu agency, citing the province's Office of Siege Affairs, the recorded cases include infectious and respiratory diseases and fever; waste had been piling up on streets, in residential neighborhoods and in drainage channels. According to provincial governor Nabil Shamsan, a new wave of refugees has brought the number of displaced families in the city to 39,400, increasing the burden on already overstretched services.

The waste disposal problem and accusations against the Houthis

Deputy governor for health affairs Aylan Abdel Haq accused the Houthi movement on Tuesday of turning garbage trucks around before they could unload at a temporary landfill west of the city. According to him, the city has had no access to its main landfill for more than 11 years; he called on UN agencies to help facilitate the passage of trucks and the reopening of the main site. The Houthis did not comment on the accusation in the publication.

Shelling casualties and the scale of losses

According to the Office of Siege Affairs, a shell fired by Houthi forces hit a house in the village of Al-Asawir in the Haifan district: three girls aged 3, 7 and 12 and a 35-year-old woman were killed, and four more civilians were wounded. The Houthis did not promptly comment on the shelling. Aiman al-Kamali, director of the independent Taiz Center for Human Rights, told Anadolu that over the past four weeks more than 50 civilians have been killed and dozens wounded in the province by shelling, sniper fire and mine explosions.

Conflict context

The city of Taiz is controlled by government forces, while the Houthis hold parts of the surrounding province. Yemeni human rights and humanitarian organizations accuse the Houthis of besieging the city and blocking humanitarian convoys; the group denies these accusations. The military escalation between government forces and the Houthis resumed in July and, according to UN reports, has killed and wounded thousands of people and displaced more than a quarter of a million. It broke a period of relative calm that had held since April 2022. The war in Yemen has continued since September 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and a number of provinces, prompting in March 2015 a Saudi Arabia-led coalition to intervene in support of the internationally recognized government.