«The coalition » escalates economic war: retaliatory measures to cut off the Yemenis’ last resources

 

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 .

 

Aid Paper

During the last few days, the coalition targeted the stores of international humanitarian organizations and their warehouses, namely UNICEF and the World Food Program. Troops loyal to the “coalition” also threaten Red Sea Mills and Grain Silos in Hodeidah, which are the strategic food store for a number of Yemeni provinces. According to the official spokesman of the Ministry of Health in the capital Sana’a, Yousef Al-Haderi, in an interview with the «news», that «there is international complicity exposed in the crimes and violations in Hodeidah», pointing out that the Ministry of Health warned of the disastrous consequences for millions of Yemenis if the coalition forces targete the stores of international organizations, before the latter was targeted, and it called on the United Nations to work to protect those stores, but the ministry was surprised by the response of the World Food Program after one of its stores was bombed that it didn’t identify the responsible party and hinted at the possibility of suspension of its humanitarian activity in Hodeidah. Hadi government , for its part, incited the food stores of international organizations in recent days to justify targeting them in an attempt, for more than a year ,to control the relief aid, and withdraw it from the port of Hodeidah to Ade to deprive millions of Yemenis from it and to use it politically away from its humanitarian purpose.

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