Displacement in Taiz: ‘I Pledged My ID Card So I Could Give Birth’

“I pledged my ID card so I could give birth.” The account, highlighted among stories of displacement in Taiz, offers a stark glimpse of the hardship facing people uprooted in Yemen.

The brief testimony points to the difficult choices surrounding childbirth for those living through displacement. No further details were provided about the circumstances in which the identity card was pledged.

The account comes amid widespread difficulty securing food. The World Food Programme says 73 percent of households in the areas it monitors in Yemen cannot meet their basic food needs.

That figure applies to the programme’s monitored areas, rather than necessarily to the country as a whole. It nevertheless illustrates the scale of deprivation surrounding accounts of displacement in Taiz, where even essential needs can be out of reach.