Yemen's Taiz families driven onto front lines by housing crisis amid rising sniper deaths

In Taiz, Yemen, single mother Um Yousef, a widowed caretaker of four children, could not afford the typical $130 monthly rent for a three‑bedroom house. After months of searching, she moved her family in January 2025 to a $13 per‑month dwelling located on the city’s front line between government forces and Houthi rebels.

Two months later her 11‑year‑old son was shot while playing outside, a casualty of sniper fire that has become common in Taiz. The United Nations monitoring project reported that 66 % of Yemen’s civilian sniper deaths last year occurred in Taiz, with 21 cases recorded, nine of them children. Despite the injury, the child recovered and was discharged the next day. Um Yousef remains unable to relocate, highlighting the intersection of acute housing shortages and ongoing conflict‑related violence in the war‑torn city.