Yemen's Humanitarian Crisis in Taiz

Some of the most intense fighting in Yemen has been around the southern

city of Taiz.

Strategically, it's absolutely crucial.

Taiz is the last major urban stronghold

held by pro-government forces in the southern part

of Yemen's highlands, and that's an area which

commands the heights over the Red Sea coastal plain

running down to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which is itself crucial for

global oil supplies, and the Indian Ocean coastal

plain, which is where the city of Aden is, uh,

located. And of course, that's been the seat of the

internationally

recognized government for many years.

Taiz is symbolically vital, too. It's

been one of the main centers of opposition to the

Houthis since the very start of the war.

For the Houthis to put the city back under siege and

threaten to actually enter the city again,

well, that deals a huge blow to the government

side.

Yemen was already the poorest Arab state, with

high rates of malnutrition and spread of disease.

Of course, the war has made all that much worse.

And with Taiz now encircled, the situation

inside the city is getting worse still.

Reuters is on the ground in Taiz, and what residents

say is that there are shortages of critical

materials: food, clean water, fuel,

and medicines as a result of the siege that the Houthis have been able to place

on the city. And what that all adds up to, according to aid

agencies, is the potential for a far more serious

humanitarian crisis to come.