The strategic city of Taiz in south-western Yemen is bracing for a major offensive by Houthi fighters, intensifying the country's devastating civil war. Saudi-backed pro-government forces are battling to repel the Houthis, who recently swept down the Red Sea coast, seizing the crucial shipping chokepoint of Mokha on September 10. This capture followed the unraveling of a four-year ceasefire and has significantly escalated the conflict.
On the front lines south-west of Taiz, the presence of drones signals imminent danger. A soldier accompanying observers noted, "This is the first drone. It's usually followed by an attack." Within minutes of a drone's buzzing overhead, loud thuds of strikes were heard, though their exact landing sites remained unclear. The area, marked by scattered, abandoned homes, is eerily quiet, save for the bleating of livestock and the continuous sound of incoming and outgoing fire.
Civilians like Ali, who lives about 1km (0.6 miles) from the front line, remain in their homes despite the peril. "Two mortars landed here on my property," he stated, sitting outside with his goats. Ali has sent his children to a displacement camp due to the relentless shelling and gunfire, but he, his wife, and sisters stay to protect their animals. "I am terrified," he confessed, "but I have no choice, we will all go hungry without our animals and die anyway." Ali, who gave only his first name out of fear of repercussions should the Houthis take control, revealed that Houthi contacts indicate they are consolidating troops for a major offensive, a threat government forces acknowledge and are preparing for.
At the closest checkpoint to the front line, returning fighters described the grim reality of the conflict. One fighter recounted that the bodies of 18 government soldiers lay in an area his unit could fire across but not reach. "We shoot over them, but we can't pull them out," he said.
Taiz, Yemen's third-biggest city and cultural capital with nearly a million residents, holds a vital position at the intersection of Houthi-controlled northern areas and government-held southern regions. It is hemmed in by front lines in multiple directions, with government forces holding the center while Houthi positions lie to its north and east. The fiercest recent fighting has occurred on the western approaches, where control of high ground overlooking the city's southern route is contested.
Securing these areas would make it significantly harder for government forces to retake Mokha, a port 85km west of Taiz that overlooks the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, a crucial shipping corridor linking Europe and Asia. The Houthi seizure of this territory has already contributed to a rise in oil prices due to fears of supply disruption.
The journey to Taiz from Aden, where Yemen's internationally recognized Presidential Leadership Council and government are based, highlighted the fractured nature of government-aligned forces, with about 30 checkpoints along the route controlled by different commanders. Approaching the city, at least five ambulances were counted within half an hour, heading towards Taiz's main hospital, a clear sign of the brutal battle raging. Despite arriving after dark to find shops lit and restaurants packed, the thud of shelling and crack of gunfire from the surrounding mountains frequently broke through the city's evening sounds.
The civil war has seen Taiz as a major battleground since 2015, when Houthis, after ousting the government from Sanaa, attempted to seize the city but were largely driven out by local militiamen. The conflict is fueled by external support: a Saudi-led international coalition provides weapons to the Yemeni government, while Iran is identified by Saudi Arabia, Western countries, and UN experts as the Houthis' main outside supplier of weapons, funding, and military advice, though Iran denies supplying weapons, stating it only offers political support.
The human cost of the conflict is starkly visible at al-Thawra hospital in Taiz, where the intensive care unit's beds were all occupied by casualties from the front lines, both fighters and civilians. Among them was 12-year-old Ghana Nabeel, who lay unconscious, her head bandaged and face swollen, after shrapnel from an incoming Houthi mortar struck her while she was herding goats. Her family waited at her bedside, grappling with a doctor's prognosis: the injury had damaged her brain, and "She will never be the same again."
The fighting has triggered a massive displacement crisis. About 20km south of Taiz, the al-Monig displacement camp has seen hundreds of tents erected, with 200 families arriving in the previous 10 days alone, fleeing Mokha and other conflict-hit villages. Maryam Saleh, who arrived a week earlier from Mokha with her husband and five children, the youngest aged seven, described their harrowing escape. "We walked barefoot and we didn't carry anything with us, just our children," she recounted, weaving a hat to sell for food.
Her nephew was killed by mortar shrapnel as they fled, walking behind her. She described clashes and sniping ahead and behind, and seeing armed men on the mountain, leading her to believe, "We thought we were finished." Despite their children screaming and crying, the family pressed on.
Another displaced person, Fatma Mohammed Saleh, who cannot walk, lay on an empty rice sack outside another family's tent, with no shelter or mattress of her own. She recounted crawling for two days after telling her two sons and their children to run when fighting reached their village, as she was slowing them down. "I was crawling and the bullets are coming from here and the shells are there. And the bullets are here, and the shells are here. And above me it was like thunder. I was praying to God," she said. A motorcyclist eventually saw her and drove her to the camp; she has not seen her family since.
The UN refugee agency reported on September 22 that more than 130,000 people have been displaced across Yemen this month alone, adding to the 5.2 million already displaced by the civil war. The agency warned that another 100,000 people could be forced from their homes over the next three months.
