300,000 Displaced in Yemen as UN Relief Chief Sounds Alarm
“Yemen’s civilians are paying a brutal price for this escalating conflict,” Tom Fletcher said in a post on the US social media platform X.
Fletcher said the besieged city of Taiz, home to roughly 1 million people, is facing closed roads and dwindling supplies. Water production there has been cut in half, and food prices have jumped by at least 50%. Hospitals are running short of fuel and medicines, he said.
He said he discussed the crisis with Foreign Minister Afrah Abdulaziz Al-Zouba. Humanitarian partners have reached nearly 260,000 displaced people, he said, but “needs are outpacing our response.”
“Our asks are clear. Open the roads and let them through. Civilians cannot be held hostage by the fighting,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher also voiced outrage over the death of Mohammad el Shami, a staff member of the UN Human Rights Office in Yemen, while in Houthi custody. He said 70 UN staff and dozens of other humanitarians are still detained.
“They are not bargaining chips. Release them,” he said.
El Shami, who worked for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), had been arbitrarily detained by the Houthi group since June 6, 2024. He is the second UN employee to die in Houthi detention.
The first, Ahmed Ba’alawi, a national staff member of the World Food Program, was arbitrarily detained by local authorities in northern Yemen on Jan. 23, 2025, and died on Feb. 11 of that year.
Yemen has been locked in conflict since 2014, when Houthi forces seized the capital, Sanaa. A Saudi-led military intervention followed in March 2015 in support of the internationally recognized government. The war has produced one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, leaving millions dependent on aid.
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