Water supplies halve as fighting cuts off Yemen’s Taiz

Attachments • Download Report (PDF | 1.71 MB) KEY HIGHLIGHTS • A total of 231,991 people (38,664 households) have been displaced by conflict between 1 August and 14 October 2026. DTM figures, which also serve as the alert baseline for the Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM), show that 99 per cent of this displacement was recorded from 31 August onwards, after hostilities intensified. Three quarters of the displaced fled from Ta’iz governorate. Ta’iz hosts 52 per cent of the displaced, followed by Lahj (23%), Aden (13%) and Abyan (5%). • Displacement continues as fighting moves inland and towards Ta’iz City. In early October, fighting in the Al-Turba area of Ta’iz displaced about 4,500 households in three days, and DTM recorded a further 44,202 newly displaced people (7,367 households) between 4 and 14 October. Fighting near existing sites is forcing already displaced families to flee again. With main roads closed, fewer families are able to reach Lahj and Aden, and further displacement towards Ta’iz City is likely if fighting continues. • Civilian casualties continue to rise, with children among the most affected. OHCHR verified 94 incidents during the reporting period that caused 233 civilian casualties: 55 people killed and 178 injured. Children account for more than a third of all casualties, with 27 children killed and 57 injured. • 152,222 IDPs (21,746 households) have been reached with first-line RRM assistance, equivalent to 56 per cent of displaced households. Partners have also provided emergency cash to 13,243 households, food assistance to 12,594 RRM-verified households and water, sanitation and hygiene support to 9,391 households. They have reached more than 38,500 IDPs with health services and screened 67,468 children and pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls for malnutrition. • Assistance is not keeping pace with needs. Four in ten verified households have yet to receive emergency food assistance, and most of those reached have received only the first of three planned cycles. Fewer than one in ten households in need of shelter support have been reached, and about a quarter of those in need of WASH assistance. The displacement is deepening an already severe crisis: 84 per cent of verified displaced households are in districts classified in IPC Phase 4 (Emergency). • Ta’iz City is increasingly cut off, and essential services are under severe strain. Since early October, road closures have disrupted humanitarian and commercial supplies. Water production in the city has fallen by about half, fuel and cooking gas are scarce, food prices have risen by about 50 per cent, and partners have no food baskets left inside the city. Hospitals report medicines, oxygen and fuel close to depletion. Supplies held in Aden and Al-Turba cannot reach the city. • Displacement is raising the risk of disease spread, particularly cholera. Families are arriving in overcrowded sites amid an ongoing cholera outbreak, often in districts where water and sanitation services were already among the weakest in the country. Cholera alerts from displacement sites are increasing, and partners are expanding treatment centres, surveillance and safe water services. • Safe and sustained humanitarian access is urgently needed. Since 8 October, humanitarian partners have been unable to move between Ta’iz City and the southern districts. Insecurity, road closures and telecommunications outages continue to delay assistance and the registration of newly displaced families. Partners remain present and ready to scale up, but their ability to do so depends on safe access for supplies, patients and aid workers. Disclaimer UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.