Over 135,000 displaced in Yemen’s Taiz province in 2 months: Minister

More than 135,000 people were displaced in Yemen’s southwestern Taiz province over a roughly two-month period, a minister said Wednesday, citing government figures that also recorded 79 civilian deaths and 206 injuries, Anadolu reports.

Social Affairs and Labor Minister Mukhtar Omar Saleh Al-Yafei presented the figures at a government news conference in the temporary capital Aden, according to Yemen’s SABA news agency.

The figures cover Aug. 10 to Oct. 15, a period of military escalation and a siege that the government accuses the Houthi group of imposing on parts of the province.

Al-Yafei said field monitoring recorded the displacement of 19,600 families comprising 135,587 people, including 52,979 children.

The ministry documented 494 violations against civilians during the same period, including the killings and injuries. Damage was reported to 56 residential buildings, 12 educational facilities, eight health facilities and 10 roads and bridges, along with other property and public services.

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The minister called for a broader humanitarian response to address funding shortfalls and gaps in essential services.

Taiz Governor Nabil Shamsan said more than 1.3 million people lived in six districts affected by the siege, while shelling had damaged or destroyed about 676 homes.

He warned that services at 12 hospitals and 18 health centers were under threat. In Houthi-controlled districts, 120 health facilities had stopped operating entirely and another 66 were only partially functioning, disrupting care for more than 186,000 children under five and nearly 23,000 pregnant women.

Taiz, Yemen’s most populous province, remains divided between government forces and the Houthis. Government forces control Taiz city, the provincial capital, and other parts of the province.

Since July, a military escalation between Yemeni government forces and the Houthis has resumed, particularly in Taiz and Lahj, killing and injuring thousands, according to UN reports.
Yemen has been at war since the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and several provinces in September 2014. A Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in March 2015 in support of Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

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