Yemen's Renewed Fighting Chokes Roads and Ports, Deepening Displacement Crisis

Renewed fighting in Yemen is severing key transport routes and disrupting port operations, leaving thousands of civilians cut off from food, medicine and shelter as displacement surges across the country's conflict-affected regions.

The escalation began in mid-September, when Houthi forces launched a rapid advance across government-held territory, seizing the entire Red Sea coastline and tightening their control over the Bab al-Mandeb strait, one of the world's most strategically important shipping corridors.

In Taiz province, residents describe a sudden return to the violence they had escaped for four years. Mohammed, a 39-year-old farmer from the Jabal Habashi district, said he first heard distant shelling in mid-September before the sounds of battle drew closer by the following day. Fearing for his family, he fled with his wife and child to Taiz city, where he found temporary shelter with a relative.

"I am lucky to have a relative who can accommodate me even temporarily," Mohammed told Al Jazeera. "I cannot stand life in crowded camps lacking access to food, healthcare and sanitation."

Thousands of other families arriving from rural areas have not been so fortunate. Many are now living in makeshift displacement camps around Taiz, a city that has itself sat on the front line for most of Yemen's 12-year war and remains under threat from Houthi forces.

The United Nations warned on September 22 that internal displacement from the latest bout of fighting could exceed 230,000 people. That figure comes on top of more than 5.2 million Yemenis who were already displaced before the current escalation, making Yemen home to one of the world's largest displacement crises.

Humanitarian workers say the closure of roads has become a life-or-death issue. Mohammed Radman, a displacement coordinator with the Executive Unit for IDP Camp Management in Jabal Habashi, said access routes that once allowed aid and supplies to reach Taiz with ease are now blocked or dangerous.

"Road closures have caused indescribable human suffering in Taiz and elsewhere where fighting has erupted," Radman said. "Closed roads sometimes mean death for civilians."

Travellers are now forced onto arduous mountain detours, which has sharply reduced the volume of humanitarian aid reaching those in need, he added. The result, Radman said, is heightened suffering, particularly among displaced families who depend entirely on outside assistance.

The disruption extends beyond Taiz. Before Houthi forces took control of Mocha city and its port, a truck could travel from the Red Sea port to Taiz in roughly three hours, according to Radman. That route is now closed entirely, while a journey from Taiz to the southern city of Aden takes six hours or more, compared with about two hours before the conflict reignited.

Ali Othman, a humanitarian activist in Taiz who has visited camps in recent days, described the situation as "real misery." Most families, he said, fled with nothing but the clothes they were wearing, escaping with their lives and little else.

"Many are living together, sharing tents," Othman said, adding that host families are also buckling under the strain of supporting displaced relatives.

Othman warned that camps cut off by blocked or unsafe roads risk becoming isolated islands of suffering, where aid agencies cannot reach people at all. The cost of transporting food, medical supplies and shelter materials climbs as routes grow longer and more dangerous, he explained, meaning deliveries may fail to reach their intended recipients.

"They suffer unseen and uncared for amid the chaos of the war," Othman said of those stranded in the camps.

The UN refugee agency said last week that humanitarian operations in Yemen face severe constraints. Among the obstacles cited were active front lines, movement restrictions, telecommunications disruptions, and damaged roads and infrastructure, all of which slow the delivery of life-saving assistance.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 22 million Yemenis, roughly half the population, are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. With supply lines fractured and commercial imports also affected, concerns are mounting over food availability and rising prices.

Wafiq Saleh, an economic researcher and executive director of the Taiz Centre for Yemeni-Gulf Studies, said the conflict is disrupting the flow of commercial goods into the country, compounding the pressures on a population already exhausted by years of war.

The combined effect of closed roads, restricted ports and repeated displacement is pushing Yemen's humanitarian system toward a breaking point. Aid groups warn that without sustained access to affected areas, the suffering of civilians, particularly those in makeshift camps, will only deepen in the weeks ahead.