«The coalition » escalates economic war: retaliatory measures to cut off the Yemenis’ last resources
Y.A
The capital Sana’a, along with the provinces under the control of the Government of Salvation, is experiencing a severe shortage of fuel and food as a result of the recent measures taken by the government of Riyadh under the direction of the US-backed Saudi-led coalition , aiming at cutting off the remaining economic resources of Yemenis and using the catastrophic effects of that to blackmail «AnsarAllah», part of the Yemeni army forces.
Sana’a
Days after the declaration of the leader of «Ansarallah» movement , Abdul Malik al-Houthi, an initiative to neutralize the Yemeni economy, which asked to provide the delivery of all the revenues of the country to the Central Bank, to be able to pay salaries of the country’s employees, to provide the basic materials, and maintain the stability of the currency, the coalition’s response came through escalating the economic war, fueling a crisis in oil derivatives and pushing the exchange rate towards further deterioration. This was accompanied by a renewed attempt to rob the rest of the public revenues of the country, whether by targeting taxes and customs through diverting ships and oil tankers from the port of Hodeidah to the ports under the control of the UAE in the south or by cutting the sea cable ,connecting Yemen to Djibouti ,after robbing the new submarine cable and turning it into a private company in Aden as an attempt to rise threat of targeting the port of Hodeidah, the only port under the control of the Salvation Government in Sana’a, which receives most of the country’s imports and relief aid.
During the military escalation witnessed by Hodeidah since a week, the coalition directed the government of the fugitive former Yemeni President, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, to provide a cover for the navy forces of the «coalition» to prevent the entry of all imports to Yemeni ports, specifically to the port of Hodeidah, so that it can evade any further consequences , whereas this is what actually happened. The government of Hadi has asked to print hundreds of billions without a cover to push the Yemeni riyal to further deterioration, as it surpassed the 600 riyals to the dollar during the past few days, after the precautionary measures taken by the Salvation government, such as preventing using the printed currency without the cover of the categories of 500 and 1000 riyals in the provinces under its control, which contributed to stop the deterioration of the exchange rate last week.As a result , under the pretext of maintaining the stability of the currency, Hadi government took a series of measures under which it approved the closure of all non-official routes of foreign imports,on which Sana’a relied for two years, since the Central Bank’s functions stopped to cover the imports with dollars after moving it to Aden, to meet the needs of the local market with products and goods from overseas markets, which the Salvation Government described as “hostile”, considering that it did not result in economic solutions but rather increased the suffering of the Yemenis and limited their chances of living a decent life. It also stressed that linking the imports to the bank’s branch in Aden without any guarantees for suppliers calls for the intervention of the United Nations to stop “a new plot that targets the Yemeni people,” renewing its demand that the United Nations must put the other party under pressureto resume oil and gas production, and return all looted revenues from the southern and eastern provinces to the Central Bank. It , in addition, expressed its willingness to deal positively with any solutions to avoid the national currency deterioration and maintain the stability of the economy.
The operations of the Coalition threaten the Grain Silos in the city of Hodeidah
On the other hand, the economic committee formed by the government of Hadi justified the disastrous measures as seeking to cover the country’s import bill through withdrawing from the Saudi deposit, but it can not withdraw from the deposit because it isn’t under the management of the “centeral of Aden”, which led to the cessation of flow of Imports to Yemeni ports since a few days , causing a supply crisis in fuel and food in the local market . According to economic sources in the private sector, spoke to the “news”, the suppliers of food, medicine and fuel have received warnings from the government of Hadi of the consequences of continued importing through channels other than the Central Bank of punitive measures against them. The same sources pointed out that Aden Bank received dozens of applications to start credit letters to import, before being forwarded to the Ministry of Finance for approval and covered by the dollar from the Saudi deposit, but the mentioned ministry required that it will only accept the applications that do not exceed $ 200 thousand per application,and covered by Yemen’s oil sales , which are exported to Saudi Arabia’s National Bank, estimated at $ 120 million per month. The sources stressed that the request of the governor of the bank appointed by Hadi, Mohamed Zemmam, to start the credits from Saudi Arabia is a clear evidence that the bank does not have any decision, and its reserves of foreign currency in international banks are still frozen, adding that what is happening doesn’t not related to the economy, but falls In the context of the economic war, accusing Hadi government of working to implement Saudi Arabia-UAE policy of starvation .
