OCHA says a quarter of a million people in Taiz have lost essential healthcare

2 November 2026

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported a sharper deterioration in Yemen, with the south-western city of Taiz worst placed. Iran-backed Houthi forces have ringed the city, fighting has shut every road into it, and commercial goods are no longer arriving. Because supplies cannot get in, close to 250,000 residents no longer have essential health care. Among them OCHA counts 23,000 pregnant women and upwards of 186,000 children below the age of five. Twelve hospitals may have to shut their doors while the need for treatment keeps climbing. In one week alone health workers logged over 1,400 cases of acute diarrhoea and suspected cholera. Cholera is carried mainly by contaminated water.