Taiz Network for Rights, Freedoms Condemns Continued Siege, Road Closures, Targeting of Civilians

The Taiz Network for Rights and Freedoms has condemned the ongoing siege imposed by the Saudi-backed mercenaries on the city of Taiz, along with the accompanying systematic, arbitrary measures—specifically the closure of vital arteries, most notably the Al-Hawban Roundabout–Al-Qasr Roundabout–City Center route. The Network also denounced the deliberate targeting of these routes with airstrikes intended to completely halt traffic and cut off essential supplies and services for the civilian population.

In a statement , the Network expressed its strong condemnation of a dangerous development that reflects a persistent disregard for civilian lives: warning announcements issued by the mercenaries declaring that civilians, vehicle drivers, and civilian transport using public roads are no longer safe, effectively designating them as legitimate military targets. The statement characterized this public threat as a full-fledged war crime aimed at stripping civilian objects of all legal protection and entrenching a policy of collective punishment—a despicable exploitation of the humanitarian tragedy endured by the governorate’s residents. The Network expressed its profound outrage at this ongoing criminal approach, which uses starvation and blockades as tools for extortion and political and military pressure.

It noted that blocking main roads and turning them into military targets amounts to the wholesale destruction of the means of survival and the arbitrary denial of the right to safe movement for patients, students, and families—a flagrant violation of all humanitarian and ethical values, contrary to the principles of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

The statement affirmed that imposing comprehensive city blockades, isolating populations, and cutting off main roads constitute war crimes prohibited under the Geneva Conventions. It highlighted that threatening to target civilians and passing vehicles undermines the principle of distinction, constitutes the crime of deliberately endangering innocent lives, and embodies a policy of collective punishment against millions of defenseless civilians.

The Taiz Network held the “aggression coalition” and its proxies fully criminally, ethically, and legally responsible for the consequences of this brutal blockade and the murderous threats to target roads, demanding an immediate halt to all forms of blockade, threats, and attacks directed at civilian objects and means of transport. It called upon the United Nations, the Security Council, and all international humanitarian and human rights organizations to shoulder their responsibilities, condemn these grave violations, and exert genuine, decisive pressure to lift the siege on Taiz and spare civilians—and the roads they use—from the consequences of this systematic targeting.