Bill for Economic Aggression Against Yemen Exceeds $ 100 billion

From the very beginning of the aggression on Yemen, the coalition leadership attempted to target the Yemeni economy.

The military campaign against Yemen has taken two parallel tracks, the first is military, represented by the direct bombing of the infrastructure of a service and economic nature, such as factories and power plants.

The other track was purely economic, through the transfer of the Central Bank from Sana’a and the attempts to withdraw the currency and replace it with a new currency that was printed without a cover, disrupting vital facilities and major ports, stopping the export of oil and gas, and squandering important wealth of fish and agricultural exports.

The bill for the economic war was very huge, reaching shocking numbers exceeding $ 100 billion in the industrial, agricultural, telecommunications, fishing, transportation and electricity sectors.

Central Bank Transfer

The first step in the economic war was to move the Central Bank of Yemen from Sana’a to Aden and stop foreign banking dealings with the bank. This step hindered commercial activity as a result of not opening bank credits abroad in order to enable merchants to cover the internal market with the necessary needs of commodities and basic supplies.

The transfer of the Central Bank from Sana’a came at a time when it was providing its services to all governorates of the republic without exception, on top of which is the payment of salaries of all state employees and covering the needs of merchants in hard currency without discrimination to provide goods to the local market.

This measure resulted in many negative consequences for the Yemeni economy, especially by the halt in the payment of salaries to employees, the high level of unemployment and the deterioration of the national currency.

Tampering with currency

The economic war included the fabrication of the problem of liquidity crisis, and its gradual withdrawal from the market, so the coalition found a justification for printing a large amount of the local currency, the riyal, which led to a monetary inflation in the Yemen, causing a great deterioration to the Yemeni economy during the last three years.

Shocking Numbers

According to the report issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the bill for the war on Yemen amounted to about $ 100 billion in physical assets and the private sector until November 2020. The costs of material asset losses amounted to $ 25 billion for damages to basic social services facilities, infrastructure and housing, including $ 19.83 billion for the initial cost of damages to housing units and urban infrastructure, $ 5.2 billion for direct losses incurred by the electricity sector, $ 770 million for initial cost of damages of roads and bridges, $ 480 million for damages of the water and sanitation sector, $ 1 billion for damages of the health sector and $ 7 billion for direct losses incurred by Yemen as a result of stopping oil production in various sectors.

The losses of the private sector amounted to $ 75 billion, including $ 39 billion for direct losses as a result of the systematic targeting of factories and commercial facilities by the coalition airstrikes.

The telecommunications sector incurred huge losses amounting to $ 11 million due to the direct targeting by the coalition airstrikes for more than 400 sites and communications networks, including 333 antennae for cellular base stations belonging to Yemen Mobile and other private and government companies.

Blocking Fishing, Destroying Coral Reefs

The fishing sector suffered huge losses amounting to 3.1 billion dollars as a result of the aggression, overfishing and the destruction of coral reefs by the coalition’s barges. These losses are doubled due to the coalition’s blockage of traditional fishing activity in 12 marine areas, depriving over 50 thousand fishermen from practicing fishing in the Red Sea coasts, and targeting their boats. For the same reason, traditional fishing decreased by 75% in Taiz and Hodeidah, in addition to the blockage of the traditional activity in the coasts of Hadramout and the coasts of Abyan by the coalition.

The agricultural sector suffered large losses amounting to 16 billion dollars, including 703.9 million dollars were lost by governmental and cooperative institutions and farms, 500 million dollars were lost by the agricultural sector in terms of agricultural loans and aid that were agreed previously with donor countries, 112.3 million dollars were the losses of agricultural societies and cooperatives as indirect losses due to the aggression and siege, $ 5.2 billion were lost by agricultural production as a result of the war, and $ 145.1 million initial losses for grains in addition to losses for the fruit sector, legumes sector, crops such as Yemeni coffee, cotton and other cash agricultural products.

The livestock sector also was targeted, its damages reached 6.7 billion dollars, including 1.5 billion dollars for the losses of the poultry sector as a result of the direct targeting of hundreds of farms, killing millions of poultry, causing the rise in feed prices and marketing losses, 2. $ 1 billion for livestock losses as a result of targeting and death, and $ 135.9 million for losses of bees and Yemeni honey production.

Total Blockade

The maritime and maritime transport sector was subjected to systematic targeting, with damages reaching 2.5 billion dollars, including 1.2 billion dollars losses from targeting airports, navigational and technical equipment, communications equipment, radars and the suspension of travel to and from Yemen, 900 million dollars for the maritime transport sector as a result of the aggression and blockade, 300 A million dollars are losses of the ports of Hodeidah and Mokha, and 3. $ 19 million in direct losses incurred by the road transport sector.

Destroying National System

The electricity sector was also paralyzed after the total destruction of the national system, and the damage amounted 6 billion dollars, including 2 billion, 77 million and 243 thousand dollars for damages to the institutions affiliated with the electricity, 659 million and 163 thousand dollars are cost of damage to the electrical system, and 750 million dollars cost.