Amin sits anxiously on the sidewalk waiting for a job opportunity. Dozens of young people like him, daily wage workers, share a bed on the sidewalk all day long, waiting for someone looking for a worker. Some of them are lucky, but they are few.
Insanely high prices
Before Amin spoke to us, he stipulated that he not be photographed or write his real name, for fear of being harmed by the Houthi militia. Real, not at work.
Amin is unable, this month, to buy the monthly treatment for his child suffering from a blood disease, due to the lack of treatment value. His motorcycle is his only source of livelihood to support his family. Weeks ago, he stopped working due to the oil derivatives crisis, forcing him to go to the workers’ “housing” to search for any Daily wage work, he says.
Yemenis describe the current year as the most difficult year for them, since the Houthi militia’s control, with high prices, lack of oil derivatives and the deterioration of the value of the local currency as well.
The alarming rise in prices in everything, the people’s talk and their biggest concern, especially the prices of foodstuffs, the price of a bag of flour (50)) in the Houthi militia-controlled areas reached 25,000 riyals, five times what it was before September 2014, and the value of 20 liters of Gasoline to 40 thousand or completely absent in some areas.
The situation is not much different in the liberated governorates in the rise in the prices of oil derivatives and foodstuffs and the deterioration of the value of the local currency. However, the salaries of civil servants are almost regular and citizens feel free and secure.
Seven years of war, the simple people have paid the price of this group’s terror and criminality. The Yemenis paid the price for it with their blood and strength. The Houthi militia has systematically destroyed the national economy, which is the most dangerous battle for every Yemeni family.
Houthi crimes against the national economy
In a statement to “Al-Sahwa Net”, the journalist specializing in the economic aspect, Muhammad Al-Jama`, recounted the crimes of the Houthi militia in this aspect, the most prominent of which was the drying up of Yemen’s foreign reserves, an amount of more than 4.5 billion dollars, in addition to the failure of its operations after drying it up and looting it.
Al-Jamai added, “The militias have taken a number of financial resources out of service, including oil and gas sales, tourism, agricultural and fish exports, international aid, foreign loans and grants, and foreign investment returns.”
The black market for oil and gas derivatives and the destruction of the value of the local currency represented a source of obscene wealth for the militia leadership at the expense of the simple citizen’s livelihood.
The black market is not only to enrich these leaders, as the collective journalist asserts, but the black militias used it to legitimize levying and looting by amending the laws in force, in addition to striking the state’s economy and harnessing the rest of its tools for the benefit of new ascendants of wealth and war snakes affiliated with it.
The Houthi militia is mastering the suffering of Yemenis through the methods and tools of state institutions that transform it to serve its goals and war on the rest of the provinces, which were resistant to submission to these rebel terrorist militias, in the same manner practiced by the Revolutionary Guards in Iran.
In this aspect, Al-Jama’i indicates that the militias took advantage of the financial center in Sana’a to punish and torture the people throughout the country by manipulating market tools and creating abnormal markets that only serve their methods of looting and collection, in the manner of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Who is the real aggression?
Yemenis compare their financial situation, the value of their currency, and food prices before September 21, 2014 and beyond. The gap appears large and wide as well. They say, the exchange rate of the US dollar has stabilized at 214 riyals, while the dollar’s price exceeds the thousand riyals by far.
In a tweet on his Twitter page, parliamentarian Muhammad Al-Hazmi compared the prices of foodstuffs, oil derivatives and household gas before the Houthi militia’s control, and their price today.
Al-Hazmi reviews the list of prices for the most prominent materials in 2014, the late days of the Basindo government, “the dollar 212, the Saudi 57, the gas 1500 riyals, the petroleum 2500, the bag of wheat 50 kilos, 4800, the bag of sugar 6700, and the blood and money are preserved. Who is the aggression then?
Seven lean and seven dry
Seven years, no salaries for employees, no investment projects, no education, no tourism, no oil, and no sovereignty for the country after the militias opened the gates of Sanaa to all passers-by, as their critics say.
A week ago, the militias closed 12 food production companies, led by Natco, which is affiliated with the well-known commercial house in Yemen for decades, Hayel Saeed Anam House.
According to UN reports, this March, the number of people suffering from starvation conditions in Yemen will increase fivefold by the end of this year, amid a significant funding shortfall.
Reports confirm that more than 17 million people need immediate assistance, and the number will rise to 19 million from the beginning of June to the end of this year.
Reports also confirm that thousands of Yemenis will face extreme levels of hunger now (the fifth stage, in a catastrophic situation), and the (fifth stage) means the acute lack of food security as for those who suffer from famine conditions.
In light of these concerns, the World Food Program official said that the program was forced to reduce food rations for eight million people in Yemen due to lack of funding.
Seven years in which the militia leaders became fat and swallowed up everything from the livelihood of the Yemenis. Official and private banks and dozens of companies were looted, the salaries of more than one million and two hundred thousand employees were looted, and tens of thousands of Yemenis lost their livelihoods because of endless royalties, taxes and levies.
The Yemenis say that during seven years they paid the price of the militias’ war with their strength, dignity and freedom, and they look forward to a day when these militias will be uprooted from their reality and their homeland and live under a state that respects the citizen and preserves his dignity and strength as well.
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