UNFPA warns that fighting and access restrictions around Taiz, Yemen, have left more than 13,000 pregnant women without essential health care and are contributing to miscarriages and unsafe deliveries.

The humanitarian crisis unfolds against a backdrop of regional proxy conflicts and maritime security disruptions, showing how international tensions magnify civilian suffering and hinder aid delivery.

Taizz and other cities face the heaviest toll from prolonged blockades that stall life-saving aid and cripple local markets and commerce.

Taiz has been largely isolated for about a month as clashes between the Saudi-backed government and the Houthi movement block key routes, deepening shortages of water, food, and fuel.

The Houthis’ advances and blockades have disrupted humanitarian corridors in Yemen, causing acute shortages of food, clean water, and medical supplies for hundreds of thousands of civilians.

If access restrictions persist, the hospital could close, according to UNFPA representative Francesco Galtieri.

International humanitarian organizations report growing difficulties in securing safe passage for relief convoys as active combat lines and restrictive checkpoints impede distribution.

Daily deliveries at Taiz’s main maternal care facility, the Yemeni-Swedish Motherhood and Childhood Hospital, have fallen to about five per day from ten, with incubators out of use due to fuel shortages and security concerns hindering travel.

More than 800,000 people in Taiz and nearby areas have been cut off from food assistance since early October, leaving pregnant women surviving on minimal rations.

Only 5 of 27 emergency maternal and neonatal health facilities in and around Taiz remain partly functioning, cutting off essential care for about 147,000 women and girls of childbearing age.

Taiz hosts roughly half of Yemen’s 300,000 displaced people; Yemen already had a high maternal mortality rate in the region, with about three women dying per day from childbirth before the current conflict intensified.

Hospitals and clinics are running low on power, fuel, and essential medicines, worsening outcomes for wounded and chronically ill residents.