Since their arrival in Taiz a year ago, rebel militias have been transforming government health facilities in the city into military barracks. Their latest target was the centre for cancer patients in Taiz at a time when more than 643 people suffering from cancer in the town do not have proper access to medicine because the rebel militias have besieged all of the town’s ports and are not allowing the admittance of food supplies, medicine and medical aid.

Houthi militias and forces loyal to the deposed president Ali Abdullah Saleh bombarded positions of the army and the Popular Resistance on various fronts of fighting in the governorate of Taiz. Residential neighbourhoods, villages and rural areas of the province were shelled badly.

Zaid Al-Saalami, a journalist and political activist and a facilitator for the government delegation in Kuwait told Asharq Al-Awsat that “the continuation of military actions and the siege of Taiz by Houthi and Saleh militias indicates that these militias do not believe in peace and are not serious about it as a strategic option. Rather, they are using it as a cover to rearrange their ranks … and carry out more killings”.