UN agencies say the only supply route from Aden to Taiz is closed as 250,000 flee in Yemen

20 October 2026

UN agencies briefing in Geneva said more than 250,000 people have fled the renewed fighting in Yemen, with about half of them sheltering in Taiz. Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the closure of the only supply route linking Taiz to Aden puts civilians at grave risk, and his office confirmed 32 civilians killed across Taiz governorate, including 14 children and nine women. Akhil Iyer, the UNICEF Representative in Yemen, briefed from Aden and called Taiz the number one concern, with clean water almost non-existent for new arrivals and sanitation services halted. WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said 12 hospitals in Taiz had about four days of fuel left and that 115 of 127 essential medicines had stock for a week or less. UNICEF said ten of Taiz's 16 districts are already at emergency levels of food insecurity, and WFP said wheat flour stocks in the affected areas are nearly exhausted. Yemen is also facing cholera and measles outbreaks along with suspected diphtheria and dengue.