Burning rubbish chokes besieged Yemeni city of Taiz

Taiz, Yemen — Black smoke from burning rubbish envelops the Usaifira area north of the Yemeni city of Taiz, while foul odours fill the air in surrounding residential neighbourhoods.Along a waterway known as the al-Saeed stream, bags of uncollected household waste pile up – a scene that has become part of daily life for residents. They find themselves trapped between mounds of rubbish and smoke, in a crisis that not only reflects a breakdown in public services but poses a direct threat to their health and environmental safety.Since early October, the city has seen a buildup of waste, with sanitation trucks unable to reach the main landfill site in the western part of the city controlled by Iranian-backed Houthi forces, who have laid siege to the city for a month, affecting hundreds of thousands of people. Fighting has escalated since October 5, when forces of the internationally recognised government — backed by a Saudi-led military coalition — launched a major military offensive aimed at taking back all areas of the country under Houthi control.Sanitation workers in Taiz say that snipers have been deployed in the vicinity of the landfill, and that staff have faced gunfire more than...