Time is running out to get aid into Taiz, besieged by pro-Iran Houthi fighters who are preventing supplies from reaching Yemen’s third-largest city, the United Nations said Friday.
Houthi fighters have encircled Taiz since early October, blocking the road that links it to Aden, interim capital of the Saudi-backed, internationally-recognised government.
“Safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access is urgently needed so that essential supplies and life-saving assistance can reach people in need,” said the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.
“It’s 20 days and counting since Taiz has been cut off,” said OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke.
“We are seeing increasingly that the fighting makes it impossible for us to get in and impossible for people to get out,” he told a press conference in Geneva.
Laerke said the dwindling water supply was a growing concern, as most residents depended on water brought in by trucks.
“With the roads closed and the diesel to run the trucks very scarce, water production in the city has fallen by about half,” he said.
“The cost of the truck water has roughly tripled. You can imagine what that does to these people who are trapped there.”
Laerke said that while local humanitarian groups were distributing their remaining supplies, including fuel to keep water pumps and hospitals running, “it comes with a time code: the clock is running out.”
“Cooking gas is another item that is largely unavailable, and the shortage is already threatening community kitchens that provide hot meals to families,” he added.
