Yemen fighting in Taiz and Hodeidah pushes the death toll past 300

Fighting between Yemeni government forces and the Houthi movement in western Taiz and southern Hodeidah has killed more than 300 people since the latest offensive began, according to an AFP compilation on 7 September. The front is the road that links Taiz city to the government-held port of Mokha, and beyond it the approach to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Two government military officials told AFP that 84 of their troops were killed between midday Saturday and early Sunday, most of them by missiles. Four Houthi sources said 57 of their fighters died in the same window. Those 141 deaths in less than a day sit on top of earlier losses from Thursday onward.

A separate Xinhua tally, based on a medical official with government units on the western coast and on two medical sources in Houthi-run hospitals in Hodeidah, put four-day losses at 54 government soldiers and 63 Houthi fighters, or 117 named combat dead. The two counts use different clocks. Both describe the same districts.

The road the Houthis want to cut

Houthi units have tried to sever the highway between Taiz and Mokha as part of a push toward the strait that gates the southern Red Sea. Government statements said troops recaptured positions at al-Kadha in western Taiz after a three-axis attack at al-Barh, and broke an infiltration attempt on the al-Dabab front. Government aircraft struck Houthi-held ground in Hodeidah and Taiz on Friday.

The current violence is the deadliest in Yemen since a nationwide truce that began in 2022 collapsed in July. The geography is old. Taiz has been a divided city for years. Hodeidah is the Red Sea port the Houthis need. Mokha is the government port that keeps a coastal supply line open. The road between them is the prize this week.

Who is leaving home

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Friday that about 1,790 households had been displaced by shelling and clashes in Maqbanah and Jabal Habashi. Families from those districts arrived at al-Bareen camp for internally displaced people on Saturday. A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the secretary-general was deeply concerned and warned of political, economic and security damage for Yemen.

Civilian deaths are inside the AFP total of more than 300 and are not broken out with the same clarity as the fighter counts. That is a reporting gap, not proof that civilians have been spared. Missile fire into the Saturday-Sunday window is what government officers say killed most of their dead. The same fire lands on roads and houses.

Monday's verifiable picture is limited and ugly. Two provinces. A coastal highway. A strait. More than 300 dead by one agency count. 1,790 households moved. A truce that died in July. Government claims of positions taken back overnight. Houthi claims of a supply line cut. The Bab el-Mandeb sits at the end of that road, which is why a provincial fight in Taiz is being read in shipping rooms as well as in Aden and Sanaa.