13,100 pregnant women cut off from maternal healthcare in Yemen’s Taiz

Attachments • Download Report (PDF | 155.17 KB | English version) • Download Report (PDF | 198.02 KB | Arabic version) ADEN, 16 October 2026 — UNFPA is issuing an urgent warning: Escalating hostilities in the city of Taiz have severed access to live-saving care for more than 147,600 women and girls of childbearing age. As violence escalates and newly displaced families have flooded the city from the west coast, UNFPA and humanitarian partners are struggling to maintain critical care. The situation is critical. Out of 27 designated emergency maternal and neonatal care hospitals in the city only 5 are partially functioning. Fuel shortages, depleted health supplies and a lack of skilled birth attendants are driving up health-care and referral costs and threatening access to life-saving reproductive health services. UNFPA estimates that more than 13,100 pregnant women, including 1,500 who will give birth within the next two weeks, are unable to access maternal health services in the city of Taiz. At least 500 are expected to require emergency obstetric and newborn care and risk life-threatening complications during childbirth without immediate intervention. Nearly 75 percent of protection from violence services for women and girls across Taiz Governorate, including safe spaces and shelters, have been suspended. Displaced women and girls with disabilities lack essential assistive devices and diapers. Access constraints are also preventing dignity kits from reaching the city of Taiz, leaving displaced women and girls in precarious settings without menstrual hygiene and personal care items. Without safe access to basic necessities, women and girls face heightened risks of exploitation and violence, including forced child marriage. “Every day that life-saving services remain out of reach, women and girls face greater risks to their health, safety and survival. Humanitarian partners are ready to respond, but they need safe, sustained and unimpeded access to reach those most at risk. We cannot allow conflict and funding shortages to determine who receives emergency care and who is left without it,” said Francesco Galtieri, UNFPA Representative in Yemen. Yemen has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the Arab region. Three women die every day from preventable pregnancy complications and 6.2 million women and girls lack basic protection services. The current escalations are deepening the health and protection risks already faced by women and girls. UNFPA is almost the sole provider of reproductive health medicines in Yemen and co-leads the coordination and delivery of reproductive health and gender-based violence response services on behalf of the whole humanitarian community. In Yemen, UNFPA also leads the UN inter-agency Rapid Response Mechanism, a first line of response that provides immediate assistance to people displaced by conflict. UNFPA calls for safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access for all humanitarian partners; protection of civilians and humanitarian personnel; and urgent support to keep reproductive health and protection services available to women and girls in Taiz and all conflict-affected areas. UNFPA urgently requires US$ 22.7 million for its humanitarian response through the next three months, including US$ 5.7 million to expand operations in conflict-affected areas. UNFPA stands ready to scale up assistance as funding comes in and access is brokered. ### In Cairo For more information, please contact: Samir Aldarabi UNFPA Regional Communications Advisor Phone: +201068484879 aldarabi@unfpa.org In Yemen Lankani Sikurajapathy UNFPA Communication Specialist Phone: +94773411614 sikurajapathy@unfpa.org About UNFPA: UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, works to uphold the rights and choices of women, girls and young people across more than 150 countries and territories. It reaches millions of women, girls and young people with essential health services, protection from violence, and with vital information about their bodies and rights. It also helps governments plan for changing population needs so people can thrive today and in the future, regardless of fertility trends.