Taiz Governor Calls for Unifying the Home Front and Confronting the Siege

Taiz Governor Nabil Shamsan held an expanded meeting on Thursday, attended by the First Deputy Governor, the Axis Chief of Staff, deputy governors, the Director-General of Police, and directors of executive offices and districts. The meeting was to discuss the military, humanitarian, service, and security conditions amid the ongoing war and siege imposed by the Houthis on the governorate.

In his speech during the meeting, the governor called on all officials to redouble their efforts with a spirit of responsibility, to get closer to the people, understand their conditions, and respond to their needs. He stressed that responsibility today is not limited to performing administrative tasks but extends to standing with the citizens and alleviating their suffering with all available means, and that anyone who fails in their duty towards the suffering of the people of this resilient city will be held accountable.

The governor stated that villages, residential neighborhoods, and homes in many areas of the governorate have been subjected to major crimes and horrific massacres in recent days. This resulted from shelling with ballistic missiles, projectiles, and various weapons, directly targeting residential areas and civilian gatherings, in addition to the use of toxic substances, which resulted in dozens of innocent civilian martyrs and wounded, including women and children.

Shamsan stressed the need to build a cohesive internal front, as strong as the military fronts, uniting the efforts of the local authority, political parties and organizations, the private sector, civil society organizations, social figures, all active forces, and the youth of Taiz. This is to confront the humanitarian, economic, and service repercussions of the war and siege and the prevention of the entry of basic necessities.

The governor affirmed that the local authority, with all its agencies and institutions, will remain present on the ground, working with all its capacity to alleviate the suffering of citizens and provide basic needs. It will stand by the heroes on the fronts of honor and dignity and by the citizens in their places of need and suffering, translating their resilience into action, responsibility, and achievement.

The governor called on journalists, media professionals, activists, and bloggers, especially the people of Taiz working in the media, to align with their professional and national responsibilities, to highlight the suffering of civilians, document crimes and violations, and convey the truth to local and international public opinion.

He also sent a clear message to the leaders, sheikhs, and social figures in the areas under Houthi control, calling on them to stand with their countrymen and community, not to get involved in the Houthi group's projects or submit to its dictates, and not to participate in recruiting children, distorting curricula, obscuring the awareness of generations, and imposing a sectarian culture foreign to our Yemeni and Taizi society.

The governor appealed to the United Nations, international organizations, and humanitarian partners to redouble their interventions and fulfill their responsibilities towards civilians, to work on alleviating human suffering, ensure the arrival of aid and basic services to those in need, and to exert maximum pressure to stop the targeting of civilians and end the siege imposed on the city.