UN rights chief says civilians are bearing the brunt of fighting in Yemen

A displaced woman holds a child at a makeshift camp for people displaced by clashes between Iran-aligned Houthi fighters and Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces, in Taiz province, Yemen September 21, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer

GENEVA, Sept 24 - Civilians are being hardest hit by surging violence in Yemen between Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces and Iran-backed Houthis, the UN human rights chief said on Thursday.

The latest fighting marks a sharp escalation in Yemen's civil war, which had largely been frozen since a 2022 truce.

Violence has flared along old front lines in recent weeks, including around Taiz as the Houthis swept south along the Red Sea coast, prompting a humanitarian crisis with over 130,000 people displaced and some fleeing to Africa across the Red Sea.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said his office has documented the killing of 32 civilians, including 15 children and 3 women, since August in fighting, including drone and missile strikes.

"Civilians are now bearing the brunt of this latest upsurge in fighting," Turk said in a statement, without giving a breakdown of who was responsible for the casualties.

A total of 125 people were documented by his office as killed or wounded in the latest flareup in the conflict. Both sides allege that hundreds have been killed in fighting over the past weeks, without providing details.

The statement said the UN human rights office had documented three attacks by Ansar Allah, the formal name for the Houthi movement, on sites for internally displaced people since August.

It was not immediately clear if the UN toll included any deaths or injuries from those incidents.

Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam said the UN human rights office was no longer impartial, accusing it of ignoring what he described as Saudi bombardment in Yemen that had targeted public facilities.

He cited what he said was the targeting of inmates at a correctional facility in al-Hazm in al-Jawf province, as well as homes and schools in several areas. He said the UN allegations were false and unsupported by evidence.

More than 70 UN staff are being detained by Houthis in Yemen, some of whom have been held for many years. Turk called for their release and urged all the warring parties to protect civilians.

Saudi officials have repeatedly said the country's forces do not target civilians in Yemen. Saudi Arabia's diplomatic mission to the UN in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment. REUTERS