Period: October 13–14, 2026
Governorates: Taiz, Hodeidah, Lahj, Aden, and Other Conflict-Affected Areas
Geneva – October 14, 2026
SAM for Rights and Liberties said that military and humanitarian developments in Yemen over the past two days reveal that civilians continue to face grave risks, amid reports of six people killed, including a child, and another civilian injured as a result of shelling of residential villages and an explosive device detonation in Taiz and Hodeidah governorates. These incidents occurred alongside continued armed clashes, the displacement of residents from conflict areas, and growing threats posed by landmines and explosive devices.
These incidents coincided with warnings issued directly by international humanitarian organizations that life-saving food assistance has become inaccessible to approximately 800,000 people in Yemen, while hospitals and healthcare facilities are facing mounting pressure. At the same time, troubling indicators point to the continued recruitment and use of children in hostilities, exposing them to the risks of death, injury, capture, and disappearance.
SAM stresses the need to investigate the reported incidents, protect civilians and civilian objects, ensure access to humanitarian assistance and healthcare services without unlawful impediments, and prevent the exploitation of children in armed conflict.
On October 14, Mohammed Al-Haidari reported that two civilians had been killed and a third injured in shelling attributed to the Houthi group that struck the Wutayr subdistrict of Sabir District in Taiz Governorate.
The published information did not provide sufficient details regarding the victims’ identities, the types of projectiles used, or the extent of damage to homes and civilian property. Nor was independent information available regarding the military circumstances surrounding the incident.
The incident raises serious concerns about the continued shelling of residential villages, particularly as military confrontations expand into rural areas close to populated communities.
SAM emphasizes that shelling in populated areas requires an investigation into the nature of the objectives the attacking party sought to strike and whether the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack were respected. This includes assessing whether means and methods of warfare were selected to minimize civilian casualties to the greatest extent possible.
On October 13, four people, including an 11-year-old child, were killed by an explosive device in the Bayt Maghari area of Hays District, southern Hodeidah Governorate, according to information published on October 14 by the Mine Action Coordination Office.
The office identified the victims as Ali Mohammed Saeed Al-Khudairi (40), Saeed Abduh Abdullah Khudairi (27), Abduh Ahmed Abdullah Sharq, and 11-year-old Zakaria Mohammed Ali Bazzaz.
Preliminary information raised suspicions that the Houthi group had planted the explosive device. However, no independent technical examination findings were available to establish the type of explosives used, when the device was planted, or who was ultimately responsible for placing it.
SAM warns of the continuing dangers posed by landmines and explosive devices in areas affected by military operations, particularly to children, farmers, livestock herders, and people traveling along rural roads.
The organization calls for an independent technical investigation into the incident to establish the nature and location of the device and identify those responsible for planting it. It also calls for urgent surveys of areas suspected of explosive contamination, the installation of warning signs, accelerated clearance operations, and increased mine-risk awareness.
On October 14, journalist Fares Al-Humairi reported continuing clashes between government forces and the Houthi group in the Dhuhaih, Jabal Kahlan, Dhubyan, and Al-Aqrud areas of Al-Misrakh District, as well as on the outskirts of Al-Sarari in Sabir Al-Mawadim District, Taiz Governorate.
According to his report, government forces repelled several attacks, while residential villages in both districts continued to come under intermittent shelling, leaving residents exposed to the dangers of bombardment and armed clashes.
In Lahj Governorate, Al-Humairi reported large-scale displacement from Al-Mudharabah and Ras Al-Arah District, alongside a tense calm in areas affected by fighting following the Houthi group’s takeover of several areas and residential villages, according to his account.
No independently verified figures were available for the number of people displaced by these latest developments or the damage to their property. Nevertheless, continued fighting and changes in military control over villages raise concerns about residents’ safety and their ability to obtain food, water, medical treatment, and shelter.
SAM stresses the need to spare populated communities the effects of military operations, ensure freedom of movement for civilians seeking safety, and prevent any obstruction of their departure from dangerous areas or the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
In a report published on October 13, 2026, the Mokha Center for Strategic Studies presented findings from field monitoring concerning children’s participation in recent battles along the western coast and on the Taiz, Marib, and Al-Jawf frontlines. The findings also covered children reportedly killed, captured, or whose families had lost contact with them.
The report explained that its monitoring involved communication with field sources and families searching for children with whom they had lost contact after they went to the frontlines. It also included reviewing video footage and information relating to child combatants who appeared during the clashes.
According to the center’s preliminary estimates based on its monitoring, between 200 and 250 children may have been killed, captured, or gone missing during the recent fighting. However, the report acknowledged that no comprehensive, verified record was available covering the names, ages, and fate of each child. Accordingly, this estimate cannot be treated as a confirmed number of recruited children or child fatalities.
The center noted that some circulating footage showed children captured during the fighting, highlighting the need to verify their ages, identities, and recruitment circumstances, and to ensure that they are not subjected to abuse, public humiliation, or the use of their images in ways that violate their privacy and dignity.
The report also highlighted the suffering of families who had lost contact with their children and had been forced to search for them through intermediaries and by following published photographs and videos, without obtaining reliable information on whether their children were alive, dead, or detained.
SAM emphasizes that recruiting children under the age of 15 or using them to participate actively in hostilities is prohibited under international humanitarian law and may constitute a war crime. Relevant international standards also prohibit non-state armed groups from recruiting or using persons under the age of 18 in hostilities.
The organization calls for an end to the recruitment and use of children in combat, verification of the fate of missing and captured children, and the provision of protection, psychosocial rehabilitation, and reintegration services. It also calls for accountability for those responsible for recruiting and exploiting them.
On October 14, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced that escalating fighting, shifting frontlines, road closures, and deteriorating security had prevented it from reaching approximately 800,000 people in Yemen with humanitarian assistance.
WFP explained that it and its partners were no longer able to reach more than 600,000 people dependent on humanitarian assistance in Taiz Governorate, including over 200,000 women and children. When communities on Yemen’s western coast that had become inaccessible since early September were included, the total number of people beyond the programme’s reach rose to approximately 800,000.
Based on its own monitoring, WFP reported that wheat flour stocks in local markets affected by access restrictions were nearing depletion and that remaining food supplies might last only a short time if access continued to be disrupted.
Another finding from WFP’s own monitoring showed that 74% of households in accessible areas were unable to meet their basic food needs, the highest level recorded during the current year.
WFP explained that the escalation had directly disrupted its operations. Some of its offices had been raided, assets and food stocks had gone missing, and vital supply-chain routes had been severed. This account is particularly significant because it comes directly from the humanitarian organization affected, underscoring the need to document the locations and property involved and investigate the circumstances of the incidents.
WFP also reported that it had provided emergency assistance to more than 115,000 newly displaced people in areas it could reach and was preparing to scale up its response to cover 1.5 million people once safe access became possible.
The programme warned that it might be forced to significantly reduce its assistance beginning in November unless additional funding was secured. It stated that it required US$268 million to continue its food assistance, nutrition support, school meals, resilience-building activities, and essential humanitarian logistics services in Yemen through the end of 2027.
SAM stresses that the disruption of food assistance in areas experiencing large-scale displacement and food insecurity threatens civilian lives. It calls on all parties to ensure the safe and rapid delivery of humanitarian relief without unlawful impediments.
On October 14, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported that healthcare facilities near frontlines in Marib, Taiz, and the Red Sea coastal region were experiencing a substantial influx of weapon-wounded patients amid severe shortages of medical supplies, personnel, and specialized care.
According to the operational information presented by the ICRC, some healthcare facilities near frontlines received more than 700 cases in a single week, while incidents involving mass casualties were becoming increasingly frequent.
Firas Abu Samra, the ICRC’s Health Coordinator, explained that only a limited number of operational healthcare facilities in Yemen had the capacity to provide comprehensive trauma care. Hospitals were facing shortages of surgical supplies, anesthetics, oxygen, and medicines, while continuing to provide essential healthcare services to women, children, and patients with chronic illnesses.
The ICRC noted that the rising number of casualties was placing pressure on hospital capacity and reducing facilities’ ability to treat patients whose medical conditions were unrelated to the hostilities, increasing the risk of broader deterioration in healthcare services.
SAM warns that a continued influx of casualties without adequate medical and operational supplies could undermine healthcare facilities’ ability to provide life-saving treatment and increase the risk of preventable deaths and complications.
In a field update published on October 13, 2026, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders warned of deteriorating health and humanitarian conditions among people displaced by fighting along the western coast and in Taiz. Its medical teams had observed families arriving in Aden and Lahj governorates after long and arduous journeys, some of which had been undertaken on foot across desert terrain in extreme heat, with limited access to food, water, and shelter.
MSF reported that its teams had witnessed displaced people sleeping under trees or living in makeshift tents and informal shelters, including schools and mosques, in conditions lacking adequate water and sanitation services. Such conditions increase the risk of cholera, acute watery diarrhea, and other infectious diseases. The organization stated that women and children accounted for approximately 70% of the patients treated by its mobile clinics in several displacement camps in Lahj and Aden. Since September, its teams had conducted 775 medical consultations and diagnosed 20 children with severe acute malnutrition.
MSF confirmed that renewed fighting had further weakened an already fragile healthcare system and increased the medical needs of displaced populations, amid rising cases of malnutrition and illnesses associated with deteriorating living conditions, as well as difficulties accessing healthcare and medical referral services. In response to the escalation, MSF deployed mobile clinics to displacement sites, delivered four trauma-care kits to hospitals in Taiz, and strengthened the preparedness of healthcare facilities in conflict-affected areas.
SAM warns that forcing families to flee along unsafe routes and subsequently live in locations lacking adequate shelter, clean water, and healthcare compounds the risks facing civilians, particularly children, women, and patients. The organization emphasizes that protecting displaced people requires more than allowing them to leave conflict areas. It also entails ensuring safe movement, access to essential services and humanitarian assistance without unlawful impediments, and the adoption of measures to prevent the spread of disease and worsening malnutrition in displacement sites.
SAM considers that the incidents outlined in this briefing demonstrate that civilians in Yemen continue to face interconnected threats, including shelling of residential areas, the presence of landmines and explosive devices, expanding hostilities and displacement, the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict, disruptions to humanitarian assistance, and mounting pressure on healthcare facilities.
The organization emphasizes that international humanitarian law requires all parties to the conflict to distinguish between civilians and combatants, and between civilian objects and military objectives. It prohibits attacks directed against civilians, as well as indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, and obliges parties to take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimize civilian casualties.
The placement and use of anti-personnel mines are prohibited under the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, to which Yemen is a party. All parties also remain bound by their obligations to protect civilians from explosive ordnance and take feasible measures to address contamination resulting from such weapons.
SAM stresses that recruiting or using children in combat constitutes a grave violation of children’s rights. Recruiting children under the age of 15 or using them to participate actively in hostilities may constitute a war crime under applicable international law. Children who have participated in hostilities or been captured must be treated with priority given to their protection, rehabilitation, and reunification with their families.
In the humanitarian sphere, the organization emphasizes that international humanitarian law protects medical and humanitarian personnel, their facilities, and their means of transport in accordance with the applicable rules. It prohibits using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and requires parties to the conflict to allow and facilitate the passage of impartial humanitarian relief in accordance with their relevant legal obligations.
SAM considers WFP’s inability to reach hundreds of thousands of people, combined with rising numbers of casualties and the growing needs of displaced populations, a serious humanitarian warning. The situation requires urgent measures to prevent the collapse of essential services and a further increase in food insecurity, malnutrition, and preventable deaths.
SAM for Rights and Liberties calls on the Houthi group to immediately cease attacks targeting civilians and civilian objects, refrain from shelling villages and residential neighborhoods or using explosive weapons in ways that endanger civilian lives, and strictly comply with international humanitarian law.
The organization also calls for independent and transparent investigations into the shelling that killed two civilians in the Wutayr subdistrict of Taiz Governorate and the explosive device detonation that killed four people, including a child, in Hays District, Hodeidah Governorate. Those responsible for any violations must be identified and held accountable, and victims and their families must have access to redress.
SAM urges an immediate survey of areas suspected of contamination by landmines and explosive devices in Taiz, Hodeidah, and the western coastal region, the installation of clear warning signs, expanded risk-awareness activities, accelerated explosive ordnance clearance, and measures to protect residents from these threats.
The organization demands that the Houthi group immediately cease recruiting and using children in military operations, disclose the fate and whereabouts of missing and detained children, facilitate contact with their families, and ensure their treatment in accordance with international child protection standards. It also calls for psychosocial rehabilitation and reintegration services and accountability for those responsible for their recruitment and exploitation.
SAM calls on all parties to the conflict to protect civilian roads and routes, facilitate the movement of people fleeing conflict areas, and ensure that food and medical assistance reaches affected communities without unlawful impediments.
The organization further urges effective investigations into any attacks on humanitarian organizations’ premises, warehouses, and property, and calls for guarantees of the safety of humanitarian personnel, medical teams, and ambulances. Military operations and security measures must not be used to obstruct the humanitarian response.
SAM calls on donors and the international community to provide the urgent funding required to sustain food assistance, healthcare, nutrition, water, and shelter programmes, prioritizing hard-to-reach areas, displaced families, children, women, older persons, and persons with disabilities.
In conclusion, SAM emphasizes that protecting civilians involves more than preventing deaths and injuries. It also requires protecting children from recruitment, ensuring that villages, farmland, and roads are free from explosive hazards, maintaining essential healthcare and food assistance services, and preventing the deprivation of assistance necessary for people’s survival. The organization warns that continued escalation and disruptions to humanitarian access, amid limited resources and worsening displacement, threaten to deepen the humanitarian crisis and increase the number of victims in Yemen.