A city under siege: the realities of Yemen’s war in Taiz

The conflict in Yemen has split the city of Taiz in half. Main roads have been closed throughout Yemen’s third-largest city since 2015 by Ansar Allah (Houthi rebel forces). People who need to travel from one side of the city to the other have to take dangerous mountain roads and journeys that would have taken 15 minutes now take more than eight hours. The knock-on effects on people who live in Taiz are severe. Very ill patients sometimes die as they are unable to travel for treatment. Prices of goods and services have more than doubled since the siege began, exponentially pushing up people’s cost of living. Operational costs of businesses and city infrastructure have also increased – including for hospitals that regularly rely on fuel-run generators to power lifesaving equipment. The siege has isolated people in Taiz from one other and cut them off from neighbouring cities. Roads connecting Taiz with the interim capital of Aden are closed, which has severely restricted the transport of essential goods and materials. It has forced traffic onto dilapidated mountain roads such as Haijat Al-Abed — known as ‘the road of death’. For eight years, people in Taiz like Maeen and Ramzi have been unable to see their families or access essential healthcare, goods and services. We worked with Yemeni filmmaker and photographer Albaraa Mansoor to produce this moving documentary.