Displacement from Yemen's west coast and Taiz triples as the UN population agency warns on childbirth care

3 November 2026

The United Nations Population Fund has told a press briefing in Geneva that displacement from Yemen's west coast and the city of Taiz has tripled to nearly 300,000 people. Women and children account for over half of that total, while a woman heads the household in upwards of a third of the displaced families. The agency's Representative in Yemen, Francesco Galtieri, speaking by video link from Aden, said more than 13,000 pregnant women live in the Taiz area, of whom about 6,400 have been displaced, and that roughly 1,500 obstetric emergencies are expected among them. Only five of the 27 hospitals designated for emergency maternal and newborn care in Taiz are partly working. At one hospital daily deliveries have halved and the number of working incubators for premature babies has fallen from 40 to ten because of fuel shortages. Even before this escalation, Yemen had the highest maternal mortality rate in the Arab region. The Fund is working with 129 community midwives and five mobile teams.