Houthis' siege isolates Taiz, drives food prices up by more than 50%, EU urges lifting blockade

Houthi forces have imposed a siege that has left the southwest Yemeni city of Taiz cut off and roughly 800,000 residents isolated, The National reported. According to that report, all roads leading into and out of Taiz have been blocked for three days, a measure that traders and aid officials say has sharply reduced supplies entering the city.

The blockade has driven food prices up by more than 50% since the escalation, the UN Population Fund coordinator for Taiz and Yemen's west coast, Saeed Saif, told The National, saying traders had “hiked up prices” during the crisis. Saif also described feeling guilty about having left Taiz.

The World Food Programme warned that wheat and flour supplies could be exhausted within three weeks if aid continues to be blocked, The National said, and called the risk of shortages severe. The article added that the siege has produced shortages not only of food but of fuel and medicine, heightening humanitarian concerns inside the city.

Arab News' headline likewise reported shortages of food, fuel and medicine, and Middle East Eye's headline noted the EU's call for the Houthis to lift the siege, corroborating key elements of The National's account at the headline level. The European Union has publicly urged the Houthis to lift the blockade on Taiz, a diplomatic appeal reflected in headlines across outlets.

The National highlighted that the mountain range overlooking roads to the Bab al-Mandeb strait gives the area strategic significance and noted that Houthi threats there have the potential to disrupt shipping routes that carry a substantial share of global trade. The article quoted aid officials warning of a fast-moving humanitarian emergency if convoys cannot reach Taiz.

The UN Population Fund coordinator's comments, given to The National from Aden, were the primary on-the-record account of market effects inside the city included in the article: Saif said he had been in Taiz until September 18 and that supply convoys remained unable to reach the city because of the siege.

The National also relayed the World Food Programme's projection about wheat and flour shortages as a concrete timeline for when food insecurity could become a crisis inside Taiz.

Local traders' behaviour is central to the reporting: the coordinator accused traders of raising prices amid constrained supplies, a dynamic The National presented as driving immediate hardship for families. The article did not provide independent verification of casualty figures or of combat activity inside the city beyond the blockade and statements from aid officials.

It did, however, place the humanitarian warnings and market impacts at the centre of its account, and noted external appeals, including from the EU, for the siege to be lifted.

The National's reporting frames Taiz as an urban population facing acute shortages caused by a blockade of access roads, with international agencies warning of imminent shortages of staple foods and European officials calling for the restrictions to end. The article concentrated on the scale of isolation, rising prices, and the WFP's three-week warning as the most urgent facts.