Renewed Houthi Siege on Taiz Pushes Hospital Healthcare Systems to the Brink of Collapse

TAIZ, Yemen — The hum of the dialysis machine inside the Republican Hospital in Taiz was a fragile sound, masking a deepening crisis that threatens hundreds of lives. It was approaching 10:30 in the morning when the equipment began filtering excess fluids, toxins, and accumulated salts from the blood of 16-year-old Omar Mukhtar Hammoud.

The young patient suffers from severe kidney failure, making him one of 270 individuals who regularly rely on life-sustaining dialysis at this specific centre located in the government-held city in southwest Yemen. Yet, as a renewed Houthi siege tightens its grip on the region, essential medical supplies and fuel are running dangerously low. Doctors at the facility now fear they may soon be entirely unable to provide the ongoing treatments that keep Hammoud and his fellow patients alive.

Dr. Essam Mahyoub Dahan, the director of the dialysis centre, issued a stark warning that a complete operational shutdown could materialize within a matter of days if immediate corridors are not established.

"Because of the siege and the shortage of diesel and medical solutions, we have recently been forced to reduce dialysis sessions from four hours to just two and a half," Dr. Dahan told Al Jazeera. "We know this is not adequate, but we have no choice if we are to keep the centre operating for as long as possible before it shuts down completely."

Dr. Dahan explained that the centre’s remaining reserve stocks of specialized dialysis solutions are similarly close to exhaustion. These expensive medical supplies are normally replenished every three months by the Yemeni Ministry of Health. However, the most recent delivery, which had been scheduled to arrive earlier this month, failed to reach the facility because of the ongoing Houthi siege on Taiz city. The latest military encirclement began in the first week of October, following tactical Houthi advances throughout the surrounding Taiz countryside.

For the residents of Taiz, the current predicament evokes grim memories of the city’s past. The municipality was previously subjected to a complete and debilitating Houthi siege between 2015 and 2016, marking one of the most punishing phases in the early years of Yemen’s prolonged and devastating civil conflict.

Across the wider Taiz governorate, where fierce battles continue to rage between Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces and Iranian-allied Houthi fighters, the number of vulnerable patients facing immediate danger is far greater. In an official statement released on October 12, the governorate’s health office warned that the continuous siege and the systematic obstruction of essential relief supplies could directly endanger the lives of 1,110 patients suffering from chronic kidney failure. These individuals depend entirely on regular dialysis services provided by hospitals across the governorate, facilities that collectively administer approximately 210 individual dialysis sessions every single day.

International humanitarian organizations and global health agencies have raised identical alarms regarding the catastrophic impact of the closure on Taiz’s fragile healthcare infrastructure. Amnesty International issued a direct public appeal on Thursday, calling on Houthi forces to immediately reopen vital transportation arteries leading into and around the city. The human rights organization warned that the continued closure of the main thoroughfare connecting Taiz to the southern port city of Aden threatens hundreds of thousands of civilians by cutting off their access to basic food items, clean water, and necessary medical care.

Fuel: A Lifeline for Hospitals

Hospitals across Taiz remain heavily reliant on diesel-powered generators to maintain operations because a vast majority of the city’s electrical grid and power infrastructure was heavily damaged during the war that began 11 years ago and has never been repaired or rebuilt.

The renewed Houthi siege has severely disrupted the entry of commercial and humanitarian fuel shipments, blocking the vital diesel supplies needed to keep hospital generators running alongside critical lifesaving medical equipment.

Dr. Shaheed al-Ameri, the deputy director-general for technical affairs at the Republican Hospital, noted that the shortages have inflicted a devastating toll on the delivery of medical services throughout the facility.

"A very large part of this suffering is because of the shortage of diesel," he told Al Jazeera. "Chúng tôi không có dự trữ diesel. Our stocks ran out early in the siege and we are now buying it on the black market almost every day, at prices that have reached five times what they were before the siege."

Dr. al-Ameri warned that the longer the military encirclement persists, the higher fuel prices will climb, accelerating the steady degradation of medical services. Already, the hospital has been forced to suspend operations in several departments, including critical units.

"If this situation continues much longer, we fear we will reach a complete and comprehensive collapse of healthcare services," he added.

The supply crunch is not isolated to the Republican Hospital. On October 22, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a public warning indicating that critical shortages of fuel, medical oxygen, essential medicines, and routine supplies were threatening lifesaving healthcare delivery throughout the entire Taiz governorate, with multiple hospital services already disrupted.

According to figures released by the WHO, at least 42 health facilities located within Taiz city have formally reported severe shortages of fundamental medical supplies. Hospitals and emergency transport ambulances require a minimum of 156,000 litres of fuel every month merely to sustain basic operational capacity.

Furthermore, the organization cautioned that ongoing diesel shortages threaten to paralyze local oxygen production plants, municipal water pumping stations, vaccine refrigeration units, and environmental sanitation services. Such a cascading failure significantly heightens the risk of major disease outbreaks, particularly among displaced families and other highly vulnerable populations sheltering in the area.

Separately, the United Nations has underscored that the tightening restrictions on commercial and humanitarian cargo are bringing the healthcare system of Taiz to the precipice of absolute collapse. The organization has repeatedly urged the Houthis to permit unhindered access for humanitarian assistance and essential consumer goods.

Oxygen Shortages Deepen Crisis

In its October 12 briefing, the Taiz health office warned that the continuous restrictions placed on fuel deliveries could ultimately force the complete shutdown of medical oxygen production plants, placing even greater peril upon vulnerable patients.

Taysir al-Samei, the media officer for the health office, emphasized that such an outcome would dramatically exacerbate an already untenable humanitarian crisis.

"Many medical departments depend on oxygen, particularly operating theatres, inpatient wards, intensive care units and incubators for premature babies," al-Samei stated.

"Most hospitals have already suspended services in some units because of the shortage of diesel and the lack of necessary medical solutions, as well as shortages of medical staff who are struggling to get to work because of the lack of transport," he added.

Al-Samei cautioned that if conditions on the ground continue to degrade at the current pace, numerous hospitals could find themselves forced to halt all remaining medical services within the coming days.

Inside the Republican Hospital, Dr. al-Ameri detailed how the pervasive shortages have crippled diagnostics and ongoing patient treatment regimens. The availability of vital laboratory reagents has plummeted to a mere 10 to 15 percent of historical operational levels, while approximately half of the standard pharmaceutical medications are entirely out of stock.

Simultaneously, market prices for the few remaining medicines have doubled, placing vital treatments far beyond the financial reach of patients who are already grappling with Yemen’s severe economic downturn.

Persistent fighting, artillery exchanges, and active frontline shelling around the perimeter of Taiz have simultaneously driven up the volume of civilian casualties requiring urgent surgical intervention, heaping additional operational pressure onto facilities that are already struggling with severe shortages of surgical kits, anesthetics, and intravenous fluids.

Abdul Badi Abdulwuhab, a 53-year-old patient receiving treatment at the Republican Hospital’s dialysis unit, voiced the immense physical and emotional toll exacted by the truncated treatment sessions.

"Because of these measures, I suffer from weakness and I cannot bear the pain," Abdul Badi told Al Jazeera, his voice trembling with exhaustion. "Two and a half hours is not enough to remove all the fluids and toxins from my body."

Reflecting on the deteriorating health of the individuals under his care, Dr. Dahan noted that patients like Abdul Badi show immediate signs of physical decline following the reduction in treatment time.

"These measures are not effective for many patients," Dr. Dahan concluded. "The only solution is to end the siege and return things to the way they were."