At least 290,000 people have been driven from their homes in Yemen since fighting re-escalated in August, the United Nations said on Friday, warning that the crisis is deepening fastest around the besieged city of Taiz, where Houthi forces have tightened their grip and cut off food, medicine, fuel and water for about two million people.
Key Takeaways
- The UN says at least 290,000 people have been displaced in Yemen since fighting re-escalated in August 2026.
- About 6,100 pregnant women are among the displaced, and 600 of them are due to give birth within two weeks.
- Around Taiz, about two million people have been cut off from regular food, medicine, fuel and water supplies as roads stay closed.
What the UN Reported on Friday
The figures came from the UN humanitarian office, OCHA, in an update reported on October 31. The update said 6,100 pregnant women were among the newly displaced, and that 600 of them were expected to give birth within the next two weeks, in many cases far from a functioning hospital. It also said 65,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Yemen faced a rapidly deteriorating situation as services collapsed and food and fuel prices soared.
Aid groups have still reached some of the displaced. The UN said mobile teams and midwives had been sent to displacement sites, and that aid groups had reached about 249,000 people with food, hygiene supplies and emergency cash. That help, however, covers only part of a displacement wave that has grown for nearly three months, and it does not restore the roads, hospitals and water systems that the fighting has shut down.
The UN has also verified 270 civilian casualties since August, including 68 people killed, half of them children, according to the reported figures. Those verified numbers exclude the civilian toll in areas where verification access has been blocked by the fighting, which means the true toll may be higher than what monitors have been able to confirm.
Why Taiz Is at the Centre of the Crisis
Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, has been under varying degrees of Houthi siege since 2015, but the latest phase has sharply worsened conditions. The Houthis intensified their siege in early October after seizing the road connecting the city with Aden, the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognised government. After seizing ground to the south of the city this month, including al-Turbah, they have tightened their hold further.
Human Rights Watch has reported that roads into and out of Taiz had largely been blocked because of hostilities since an October 1 attack, and that on October 18 Houthi forces used explosives to severely damage a section of road near al-Turba. That road had served as the main entry point for food, medicine and fuel. Some supplies, including flour, nevertheless continued to arrive along the Hayjat al-Abd road, according to the same reporting.
By October 23, the UN humanitarian office’s spokesperson Jens Laerke said Taiz had been cut off for 20 days, with very little fuel, food or other supplies reaching the city. Water production had fallen by about half, while the price of trucked water had roughly tripled. The World Food Programme had warned on October 14 that it and its partners could not reach more than 600,000 people in Taiz who depended on humanitarian assistance, and that wheat flour stocks in the city were nearly exhausted.
It comes with a time code: The clock is running out.
That warning, from Laerke, described the remaining local supplies keeping water pumps and hospitals running. Altogether, more than 800,000 people in Taiz are cut off from aid, about three-quarters of whom depend on humanitarian assistance, according to the World Food Programme. At least 200,000 of them are women and children.
Hospitals Running Out of Fuel and Oxygen
The siege is hitting hospitals hardest. A report published on October 26, citing UNICEF and Reuters reporting, said fuel shortages had sharply reduced the number of functioning incubators at the Yemeni-Swedish Hospital for Maternity and Childhood, from 40 to just 10. Hospital staff warned that shortages of fuel and oxygen could threaten essential services and leave newborns without the support they need.
UNICEF has also reported widespread child malnutrition in the region. Among children screened this year, tens of thousands were found to be acutely malnourished, including thousands with severe acute malnutrition. Humanitarian organisations have warned that continuing insecurity and restrictions on movement could disrupt the delivery of therapeutic food and other lifesaving supplies.
The wider UN presence in Yemen is itself under pressure. The UN said on Thursday that the continuing detention by the Houthis of 71 members of UN staff renders humanitarian operations in parts of Yemen controlled by the militia “untenable”, and that it has no presence at all inside Taiz itself. It therefore depends heavily on Yemeni aid workers operating with local and international aid groups to reach residents, as the UN’s own staff remain detained and its access stays blocked.
A War That Has Also Reached Beyond Taiz
The fighting around Taiz is part of a wider escalation. Yemen’s internationally recognised government said the Houthis fired at least three ballistic missiles on Friday at the presidential palace in Aden and at Aden International Airport, which had reopened a day earlier after repairs. Government forces said they had struck Houthi command centres and supply lines in Taiz, Marib, al-Jawf and al-Bayda, claims that could not be independently verified from the battlefield.
The regional dimension of the war continues to draw international attention, including the death of a United Nations employee in Houthi custody, which the UN condemned on October 31 and for which it demanded an urgent inquiry. The Houthis have also continued missile and drone attacks across the region, keeping neighbouring states and shipping routes on alert even as diplomats warn against a wider escalation.
- At least 290,000 people displaced in Yemen since August, the UN said on October 31.
- 6,100 pregnant women among the displaced; 600 due to give birth within two weeks.
- About 249,000 people reached so far with food, hygiene supplies and emergency cash.
- More than 800,000 people in and around Taiz cut off from aid; about three-quarters depend on assistance.
- Water production in Taiz down by about half; trucked water prices roughly tripled.
- 71 UN staff members remain detained by the Houthis, the UN said on October 29.
What to Watch Next
What to watch next is whether any road into Taiz reopens, whether fuel and medicine reach the city’s hospitals before their remaining stocks run out, and whether the 600 pregnant women due to give birth within two weeks can reach care in time. The other tests are whether the UN’s detained staff are released, whether aid groups can extend their reach beyond the 249,000 people helped so far, and whether the fighting around Taiz, Marib and Aden eases or spreads further. Until access improves, the UN’s warning stands: for the people cut off in Taiz, the clock is running out.