WAR AND BLOCKED ROADS PUSH THOUSANDS OF PREGNANT WOMEN IN YEMEN TOWARDS A MATERNAL HEALTH CRISIS
November 4, 2026
TAIZ, YEMEN — More than 13,000 pregnant women in and around the Yemeni city of Taiz have been left without essential healthcare amid escalating fighting and restrictions on humanitarian access, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has warned. The agency says the deteriorating conditions are contributing to rising miscarriages and unsafe childbirths.
Taiz has remained largely isolated for about a month following intensified clashes between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and the Iran-aligned Houthi movement. Key supply routes, including the Taiz-Aden corridor, have been blocked, disrupting the movement of humanitarian supplies and worsening shortages of food, water and fuel. The city is also sheltering approximately half of the 300,000 people displaced across Yemen by the latest fighting.
The humanitarian crisis is placing pregnant women at particular risk. Yemen already has the highest maternal mortality rate in the Arab region, with an estimated three women dying daily from childbirth-related complications even before the conflict resumed this summer. UNFPA-supported midwives have recently reported an increase in miscarriages and unsafe deliveries, especially in and around Taiz.
The agency estimates that approximately 1,500 obstetric emergencies could occur among 6,400 displaced pregnant women because of the physical and psychological pressures of conflict and mass displacement. Only five of the 27 designated emergency maternal and neonatal healthcare facilities in the area remain partially operational. Essential healthcare services have also been disrupted for around 147,000 women and girls of childbearing age.
Conditions at the Yemeni-Swedish Motherhood and Childhood Hospital, Taiz's principal maternal care facility, have become increasingly difficult. Daily deliveries have fallen from around 10 to approximately five. Most incubators are no longer functioning because of fuel shortages, while insecurity, shelling and rising fuel prices are preventing patients and medical personnel from reaching the hospital.
UNFPA has warned that the facility itself could be forced to close if access restrictions are not lifted in the coming days.
Food insecurity is compounding the medical emergency. More than 800,000 people in Taiz and surrounding areas have been cut off from food assistance since early October, according to the UN World Food Programme. Pregnant women are reportedly surviving on extremely limited diets, sometimes consisting of little more than tea, bread or rice.
The United Nations has warned that continued fighting and restrictions on humanitarian access could further endanger mothers and newborns, as essential medical services and supplies remain increasingly difficult to reach.
