The Houthis have closed the only supply route linking Taiz to Aden after capturing a major road into the city, cutting off humanitarian aid and essential supplies, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk said on Tuesday, and the World Food Programme has warned that shifting front lines and road closures have cut off 800,000 people from life-saving assistance, the vast majority in Taiz. Local authorities on Tuesday raised the death toll from Monday’s Houthi ballistic missile strikes on the al-Alam camp in Shabwah governorate to 73, an attack the Yemeni government condemned as a war crime, while President Rashad al-Alimi formally requested that the UN designate the Houthis as a terrorist organisation. The Saudi-led coalition said on Tuesday it had intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis towards Riyadh.
UN warns Taiz siege risks catastrophe as Shabwah toll hits 73
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk said on Tuesday that the Houthis must immediately allow humanitarian relief into besieged Taiz or risk a catastrophe, while local authorities raised the death toll from Monday's Houthi missile strikes on a military camp in Shabwah to 73.
Why it matters: Taiz is home to more than 4 million people and the World Food Programme says road closures have cut off 800,000 people from life-saving assistance, so the siege and the rising Shabwah toll mark a further escalation of the Yemen ground war.
Data as of Al Jazeera report of October 20, 2026, read in full. Single-source developing item: the Taiz warning is attributed to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Shabwah toll to local authorities, as reported by Al Jazeera. Developing item.
Sources
- Yemen's Taiz faces deadly siege, as Shabwah death toll rises - Al Jazeera - 2026-10-20