Yemen’s Taiz hospitals face imminent collapse as Houthi siege cuts fuel and dialysis supplies

In the government-held city of Taiz, the Republican Hospital’s dialysis centre, which treats 270 patients, is on the brink of stopping services because the renewed Houthi siege has cut off diesel and essential medical supplies. Patients like 16-year-old Omar Mukhtar Hammoud now receive only two-and-a-half hour sessions instead of the usual four, a reduction that staff say is insufficient to clear toxins. Director Dr Essam Mahyoub Dahan cautions that a total shutdown could happen within days, after a scheduled delivery of dialysis solutions from the Yemeni Ministry of Health failed to arrive.

Diesel shortages have forced the hospital to buy fuel on the black market at prices five times higher, and other facilities across Taiz report similar crises, with the WHO noting severe shortages of fuel, oxygen, and medicines in 42 health sites. Amnesty International and the United Nations have called on the Houthis to reopen roads to allow humanitarian aid, warning that continued obstruction could collapse the region’s health system and spark disease outbreaks.