Yemen’s Taiz under siege again as food and fuel prices rise

Taiz, Yemen – Taiz is under siege, but 37-year-old Iskandar Abdullah already knows what it’s like to live under one. The city, a major population centre in Yemen’s southwest, endured a devastating Houthi siege between 2015 and 2016, as the Iranian-backed group attempted to capture the city from local pro-government forces. The Houthis continued to maintain a partial siege in the following years through their control over other access points into the city. “They were difficult days,” Abdullah recalls, even as the Houthis begin a new siege on Taiz following their capture of territory to the south of the city, cutting off the main road to government-held territory.