UN envoy meets Houthi negotiators as Yemen fighting intensifies
UN special envoy Hans Grundberg met Houthi negotiators in Oman over the weekend of September 26–27 as he sought to prevent Yemen’s escalating conflict from spreading further. Speaking on Tuesday, September 29, Grundberg said his discussions in Muscat with the Houthis’ chief negotiator, Mohammed Abdul-Salam, explored ways to halt the escalation. He also held talks in Riyadh with Yemen’s internationally recognized government and regional powers, including Saudi Arabia.
The meetings are part of the UN envoy’s continuing effort to reduce violence and preserve a path toward a Yemeni-led political settlement. They do not, by themselves, amount to a new ceasefire or a peace agreement. With fighting under way on several fronts, the immediate diplomatic task is to persuade the parties and their regional backers that restraint is preferable to further advances on the battlefield.
Why the talks are urgent
Yemen’s western coastline has become a major focus of the renewed war. Houthi forces took control of the port city of Mokha in September, according to Grundberg’s briefing to the UN Security Council, while fighting continued elsewhere. The advance brought the group closer to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the passage between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden used by international shipping.
Grundberg has called on the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, to stop attacks inside Yemen, across the Saudi border and against commercial vessels. He said the fighting near maritime routes adds a dangerous dimension to a conflict already affected by wider Middle East tensions. His proposed approach is to keep Yemen’s search for a settlement from being overtaken by other regional wars.
The latest battles have disrupted the relative reduction in large-scale fighting that followed a UN-brokered truce in 2022. They also come against a long history of division: the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014, and a Saudi-led coalition entered the war the following year in support of the internationally recognized government. Forces opposed to the Houthis remain divided, complicating both the military response and prospects for political talks.
What is known about the human cost
UN figures cited as of September 29 put the toll from the recent escalation at at least 838 people killed and more than 3,640 wounded. The UN migration agency reports that more than 145,000 people have been displaced within Yemen, while more than 3,000 have crossed to Djibouti. Those are reported totals from international agencies, not a final accounting; access to affected areas and continuing fighting can change the figures.
The World Health Organization had recorded 674 deaths and 2,998 injuries between August 6 and September 18. That earlier reporting period helps explain why its published tally is lower than the more recent UN figures. The agency has also warned that the escalation is placing additional pressure on Yemen’s already strained health services.
Claims that remain contested
Not every account of a specific attack has been established. The Houthi-run health ministry says Saudi-backed government forces struck a market in Taiz province, killing at least seven people and wounding at least 40. Yemen’s internationally recognized government’s military rejects that account. It says its forces targeted Houthi warehouses and positions in Taiz and claims the strikes caused casualties among rebel fighters. The competing descriptions of what was hit, and the reported market casualty figures, have not been independently confirmed.
The distinction matters as diplomats try to limit the fighting. The Muscat meeting and Grundberg’s parallel outreach to the government are confirmed diplomatic steps; neither establishes that the parties have agreed to stop fighting. For now, his effort is aimed at preventing further escalation while keeping open the possibility of negotiations over Yemen’s future.
