Since the outbreak of the war and the blockade of Taiz Governorate in March 2015, until the present time, the governorate has been exposed to heavy damage and losses, both material and human, as a result of the war and then the siege of which the impacts exceeded the losses of the war. The continuation of the siege impeded the stabilization of the normal life of the residents of Taiz, and this included all aspects of human life, as the war affected the infrastructure, such as roads, electricity, water, sanitation and hygiene networks, and the state’s service delivery and commercial and industrial activities all over the governorate. Many citizens' homes were severely damaged or looted by the unruly gunmen, while the impact of the barricade extended to include the deterioration of the economic and humanitarian conditions for all citizens of the governorate, regardless of their demographic groups.

Moreover, the governorate’s authority and its people were hindered from rebuilding and recovering. Consequently, the humanitarian conditions continued to deteriorate unceasingly, which led to unemployment and poverty rates rising to dramatically high levels, estimated in the absolute poverty index at a rate exceeding 80% of the governorate’s population instead of 36% before the war and siege, and in the unemployment index a rate exceeding 90% of the labor force in Taiz instead of 46% before the war. These rates were confirmed by official data reports of the leadership of the local authority of Taiz governorate, and research analyzes conducted by the author based on these data, and other data on the economic situation of the governorate. 

Additionally, the siege prevented the governorate authorities from confronting the collapse of the activities of the various economic and social sectors, whereas the activities of the productive and service sectors froze or declined severely. Among the sectors and fields marked by deterioration, we can point out the following:

• Agriculture and its related economic activities: such as animal growing and beekeeping, which led to the downfall of food security, and the continuous increase in the suffering of citizens given that the governorate is mainly agricultural and the agriculture sector is the most important economic activity for its people.

• A noticeable deterioration in other sectors of the local economy, including: fishing, industry and commerce, construction, liberal professions, tourism and human development. As many educational activities have been frozen or weakened to high levels that are difficult to accurately assess at present, health services have also declined to extraordinary levels, and the costs of medical treatment and medicines have significantly risen in a way that most citizens find it impossible to cope with. As a result, various provinces and districts were exposed to the spread of diseases and epidemics, which led to the death of many patients, due to the weakness and significant decline in health services and the very high prices of the available health facilities. We can briefly present some quantitative indicators of the damage and losses that befell the governorate, as follows:

1. A thorough cessation of the state administrative and economic units in the governorate in the first two years of the war; (2015 and 2016), while it partially resumed operation in some of them since 2017, but with very poor performance, due to the damage and material and human losses suffered. According to the results of a field study carried out by the Central Statistical Office in the governorate, in which I was part in its preparation, revealed the following:

• 65 state administrative units in the governorate were evaluated, and the assessment showed that these units were subjected to significant damage and losses during the period (2015-2020), which was estimated at total of more than (2.6) billion US dollars. These damages and losses also left direct impacts and other indirect damages, the effects of which are currently hard to assess on all sectors of the local economy of the governorate. The results of the study also showed that these units lost 12,262 employees of its workforce, distributed between dead and wounded, and some of the wounded were seriously injured. These injuries turned them into cripples unable to resume their work, as well as displaced people who were unable to return to their work due to the siege imposed on the governorate. The study recommended the provision of an amount of 1.6 billion US dollars to repair the damage to these units to return its functional state before the war and blockade.

An estimated loss of 55 billion riyals annually since the outbreak of war and siege until the present time in exchange for taxes from major the governorate taxpayers that used to supply the state budget.

2. According to a recent report issued by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the governorate, in which the most important damages and losses suffered by commercial and industrial activities were highlighted, which led to a major paralysis of commercial and industrial activity in the governorate. The report indicates that the number of commercial and industrial establishments in the governorate before the war amounted to 13,500 operating businesses. Currently, there are only 65 active firms which still in the records of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the rest are missing or closed, either due to damages and inability to rebuild, or closed due to the displacement of their owners and their hopelessness to return to resume their activities due to the blockade.
3. According to the results of the report of the local authority in Taiz Governorate, in addition to the findings of my field visits as a researcher, I will refer to the financial losses that the governorate lost, and that its residents are still suffering from due to the war and the continuation of the blockade, as follows:

• Loss of an estimated 55 billion riyals per annum since the beginning of the war and siege up to date in exchange for taxes from major taxpayers that were flowing to the state budget from the governorate.

• Annual losses estimated at an average of about one billion riyals during the war time, which includes the loss due to traffic accidents, because of the road blockade and forcing citizens and means of transportation to pass through alternative rugged and extremely dangerous mountainous roads. In addition to the huge increase in the time and cost of transportation... For example, moving from the city center of Taiz to the Al-Hawban area takes 4-6 hours using public transportation, a distance that used to take a few minutes via official roads before the war.

• Transport fares also increased significantly. For example, the trip from the city of Taiz to the Al-Hawban area before the war cost an individual an amount ranging between (50-100) riyals only, while in the years of the siege since 2015, the cost of transporting one person on public transportation reached an amount of 15 thousand riyals. If we compare these to the fees for costs of transporting goods from one area to another using heavy vehicles or tucks, the cost is exorbitant and added to the cost of the goods before they are sold to citizens. In addition, these rugged roads are full of security checkpoints belonging to the parties to the conflict (the Houthis and the legitimate government), and drivers of good trucks are exposed to blackmail at these points and are forced to pay royalties to the personals of these points. All of these costs are reflected in a significant upsurge in the prices of food commodities and other basic commodities such as medicine, etc., and these costs are borne by citizens through an increase in the prices of goods and services, which doubles the human suffering of the governorate’s residents compared to the residents of other governorates.

Because the basin feeding the public water network is located in an area controlled by the Houthi movement, the flow of domestic water has been cut off, causing great suffering for the citizens of the governorate who are forced to fetch clean water, at very high costs that most citizens cannot afford.

• Loss of a financial allocation of $58 million in Chinese aid that was allocated to rehabilitate the port of Mokha. The port of Mocha was planned to be an important international maritime outlet for international trade between the governorate and other countries, which would revive the economic situation in the governorate and stimulate the investment wheel to return to what it was at the beginning of the 1970s. Thus improving the economic and living situation of the governorate’s residents.

• Loss of an annual allocation of diesel as a national share of the governorate from the revenues of oil derivatives that were refined in Aden refineries and distributed to the governorates of the Republic of Yemen, estimated at about 54 billion liters due to the cessation of electrical power generation stations and the continued siege of the governorate.

4. Because the feeding basin of the public water network is located in the area controlled by the Houthi movement, the flow of domestic water through this network was cut off, and was not restored throughout the more than 8 years of siege. This causes great suffering to the population of the governorate who forced to obtain clean water at very high costs that most citizens cannot afford.

5. Because the power plant is located in the city of Mokha, which is an area controlled by the joint forces led by a member of the Presidential Command Council, Brigadier General / Tariq Mohammad Abdullah Saleh, was damaged by air strikes during the Houthis' control of it, and it has not been restarted since then. Likewise, the electrical power plants located in the city of Taiz are no longer operating, and thus, the supply of electrical energy to the citizens of the governorate through the public network has stopped since 2015 until the present time. This led to the deprivation of most of the governorate’s citizens from meeting their power energy needs due to the significant increase in the prices of alternative commercial energy units to which some citizens resorted. The absence of a public network and the high costs of obtaining alternative private energy greatly affect the deterioration of the remaining investment activities in the governorate. Consequently, the humanitarian situation of citizens continued to deteriorate.

In general, it can be said that the expansion of the governorate’s area, estimated at about 10,038 square kilometers, and the density and spread of the population over 23 districts, as the governorate occupies first place in population density among the governorates of the Republic of Yemen, with a percentage exceeding 12% of the total population of Yemen, according to the results of the population censuses that were carried out by the Central Bureau of Statistics Agency every 10 years, and what the governorate is exposed to in terms of the fragmentation of its demographic areas between multiple military forces and the unprecedented blockade in human history as well as the effects of the war and other impacts resulting from the long period of the siege that we have mentioned - make the lives of the governorate’s residents of all categories and types very difficult, and has no parallel at the level of the Yemeni state and at the level of population centers in different countries of the world

As a result of all of this, most of the governorate’s residents have come to live on humanitarian aid and family and social solidarity, and it has become common to see the spread of poverty-related phenomena such as begging, child labor, and the homeless in the streets of cities in a very painful way. 

In conclusion:

We conclude from the statistics included in this article that the situation in Taiz Governorate due to the continuation of the siege has become catastrophic, and requires the international community to play an active role in accelerating the lifting of the siege on Taiz. We also hope that there will be serious international efforts to put an end to the war and achieve lasting peace in Yemen. 

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