The American Center for Justice (ACJ) issued a comprehensive investigative report titled “Siege of Taiz: A Humanitarian Crisis,” examining the devastating humanitarian, social, and economic consequences of the nine-year siege imposed on Taiz Governorate by the Houthi group from March 2015 through 2024. Utilizing rigorous field monitoring methodologies, photographic evidence, and verified testimonies from victims, healthcare workers, and eyewitnesses, the report substantiates the severe collective punishment inflicted on the governorate’s civilian population.
The report documents 3,021 civilian deaths and 6,361 injuries resulting from Houthi sniper fire, direct artillery shelling, and indiscriminate landmines. This includes 1,778 civilians killed (529 children, 228 women) and 4,427 injured by shelling; 824 civilians killed (166 children, 87 women) and 1,155 wounded by snipers; and 419 killed alongside 779 injured by landmines and improvised explosive devices. In parallel, 477 individuals were arbitrarily arrested, 79 subjected to enforced disappearance, and 59 tortured, predominantly at checkpoints situated along precarious alternative transit corridors.
The blockade closed the city’s primary eastern, western, and northern arterial routes, forcing more than 1.5 million urban residents onto steep, unpaved mountain bypasses such as Heijat Al-Abd and Al-Aqroudh. These hazardous pathways witnessed 561 vehicular accidents, causing 434 fatalities, 807 injuries, and material losses exceeding two million dollars. The group obstructed 31 humanitarian relief operations and confiscated 22 truckloads of essential food and medical aid for military use. Healthcare services collapsed as hospitals were deprived of medical supplies and fuel; in the first year alone, 26 civilians, including nine newborns, died due to oxygen deprivation. Furthermore, the siege displaced 44,749 families across 17 districts, emptied 22 villages entirely, severed 75% of the municipal water supply, obstructed sanitation operations leading to epidemic outbreaks, and caused essential commodity prices to surge by 500% alongside a 1,000% escalation in transportation costs.
ACJ defines the ongoing siege as a war crime under the amended Rome Statute and Article 14 of the Second Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions prohibiting the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, while also amounting to persecution and crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute. The Center urges the international community to treat the siege of Taiz as a non-negotiable humanitarian priority, demanding the unconditional reopening of all main transit corridors, the surrender of minefield maps, and full restoration of municipal water and aid flows.
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