Yemen: Houthis Deplete Traders, Citizens’ Resources for 'War Effort'

Shops such as the one in the image above are often out of stock during war rages, Sanaa, Yemen (Reuters)
Shops such as the one in the image above are often out of stock during war rages, Sanaa, Yemen (Reuters)
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Yemen: Houthis Deplete Traders, Citizens’ Resources for 'War Effort'

Shops such as the one in the image above are often out of stock during war rages, Sanaa, Yemen (Reuters)
Shops such as the one in the image above are often out of stock during war rages, Sanaa, Yemen (Reuters)

Houthi militias intensify, during the month of Ramadan, efforts to blackmail citizens and merchants under the provision of “Eid convoys” in support of the war effort, as well as taxes and levies imposed such as zakat or fees to improve Sanaa and distribute food baskets.

Traders and businessmen complain they are on the verge of bankruptcy and their businesses could be subject to foreclosure due to systematic and continuous extortion by Houthi militias. They also impose royalties throughout the year, and on several occasions, which increases in Ramadan.

Traders told Asharq Al-Awsat that Houthis use all methods of extortion and looting of citizens, merchants, institutions, sheiks and dignitaries, forcing them to donate all convoys without taking into account living conditions of the citizens and their economic situation caused by the war and the corruption of the pro-Iranian group.

The militias did not exclude any of the institutions under their control in Sanaa from mobilizing support and donations, including public and private institutions. Academics told Asharq Al-Awsat that the militias ordered the universities to run food convoys and collect donations for the group's fighters in the fronts.

Economists confirm that the coup militias continue to destroy the private sector, after being privy to the public sector. They looted all authorities’ savings and monopolized them for their followers, war effort, and employees salaries.

Merchants in Sanaa say they are forced to donate, whether cash money or items they trade, without any exception.

The militias forced a shoe seller to allocate 10 percent of his total merchandise for the war effort.

“They determined each kind and shoe size they want, including women's, children and men shoes,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

A prominent perfume merchant, speaking on condition of anonymity, admitted that each Eid, Houthis force him to pay royalties and participate in preparing aid convoys for fighters. He admitted that the group's senior leaders in Sanaa asked for his best perfume for their personal use.

Citizens’ demand for clothes during Eid period increases and Houthi militias carry out heavily armed raids on major shops and retail clothing shops in Sanaa, and Ibb forcing them to donate.

Traders fear Houthis’ retaliation for those who do not support the war effort. They said militias are practicing a variety of methods, including kidnapping and closing shops, for those who refuse to donate.

A retailer in Sanaa reported that militias focus on clothes’ shops of all kinds, and they are forced to choose between paying or closure.

Economists say that levies and royalties imposed on traders, regardless of the goods, will be added to the final value of the commodity, which poor and destitute citizens will have to pay.

Earlier, militias closed chain stores in Sanaa and several cities, with losses reaching millions of Yemeni riyals. In addition to closing one of Sanaa's biggest shopping malls under the pretext that it deals with banknotes issued by the Central bank in Aden.

Store owners confirmed they were forced to pay royalties, participate in preparing aid convoys, as well as paying the taxes, customs, and cleaning fees, all of which costs a lot.

Meanwhile, dozens of traders left Sanaa to areas under the legitimate government control in Aden, Maerib, and Hadramout, in an effort to distance themselves from the militarization of the militias and its relentless war effort.



Sudan’s Humanitarian Crisis Worsens amid Escalating Violence

FILE - People prepare local crops of sugar cane and watermelons for sale, at Abu Shouk refugee camp, where they live on the outskirts of El Fasher, North Darfur, Sudan, Oct. 8, 2010. (AP Photo/John Heilprin, File)
FILE - People prepare local crops of sugar cane and watermelons for sale, at Abu Shouk refugee camp, where they live on the outskirts of El Fasher, North Darfur, Sudan, Oct. 8, 2010. (AP Photo/John Heilprin, File)
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Sudan’s Humanitarian Crisis Worsens amid Escalating Violence

FILE - People prepare local crops of sugar cane and watermelons for sale, at Abu Shouk refugee camp, where they live on the outskirts of El Fasher, North Darfur, Sudan, Oct. 8, 2010. (AP Photo/John Heilprin, File)
FILE - People prepare local crops of sugar cane and watermelons for sale, at Abu Shouk refugee camp, where they live on the outskirts of El Fasher, North Darfur, Sudan, Oct. 8, 2010. (AP Photo/John Heilprin, File)

Fighting in Sudan's Kordofan region that has killed hundreds and ongoing violence in Darfur — the epicenters of the country's conflict — have worsened Sudan's humanitarian crisis, with aid workers warning of limited access to assistance.

The United Nations said more than 450 civilians, including at least 35 children, were killed during the weekend of July 12 in attacks in villages surrounding the town of Bara in North Kordofan province.

“The suffering in Kordofan deepens with each passing day,” Mercy Corps Country Director for Sudan Kadry Furany said in a statement shared with The Associated Press. “Communities are trapped along active and fast changing front lines, unable to flee, unable to access basic needs or lifesaving assistance.”

Sudan plunged into war after simmering tensions between the army and its rival, the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, escalated to fighting in April 2023. The violence has killed at least 40,000 people and created one of the world’s worst displacement and hunger crises, according to humanitarian organizations. In recent months, much of the fighting has been concentrated in the Darfur and Kordofan regions.

On Thursday, the UN human rights office confirmed that since July 10, the RSF has killed at least 60 civilians in the town of Bara, while civil society groups reported up to 300 people were killed, the office said.

A military airstrike on Thursday in Bara killed at least 11 people, all from the same family, according to the UN office. Meanwhile, between July 10 and 14, the army killed at least 23 civilians and injured over two dozen others after striking two villages in West Kordofan.

An aid worker with Mercy Corps said his brother was fatally shot on July 13 during an attack on the village of Um Seimima in El Obeid City in North Kordofan, Grace Wairima Ndungu, the group’s communications manager told AP.

Furany said that movement between the western and eastern areas of the Kordofan region is “practically impossible.”

The intensified fighting forced Mercy Corps to temporarily suspend operations in three out of four localities, with access beyond Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, now being in “serious doubt,” Furany said, as a safe sustained humanitarian corridor is needed.

Mathilde Vu, an aid worker with the Norwegian Refugee Council who is often based in Port Sudan, told the AP that fighting has intensified in North Kordofan and West Kordofan over the past several months.

“A large number of villages are being destroyed, burned to the ground, people being displaced,” she said. “What is extremely worrying about the Kordofan is that there is very little information and not a lot of organizations are able to support. It is a complete war zone there.”

Marwan Taher, head of mission with humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, told the AP that military operations in Kordofan heightened insecurity, prompting scores of people to flee to Darfur, a region already in a dire humanitarian situation.

The NRC said that since April, Tawila has already received 379,000 people escaping violence in famine-hit Zamzam Camp and Al Fasher.

Meanwhile, the International Organization for Migration recently reported that over 46,000 people were displaced from different areas in West Kordofan in May alone due to clashes between warring parties.

Taher said those fleeing El Fasher to Tawila walk long distances with barely enough clothes and little water, and sleep on the streets until they arrive at the area they want to settle in. The new wave of displacement has brought diseases, including measles, which began spreading in parts of Zalingi in Central Darfur in March and April as camps received people fleeing Kordofan.

Aid workers also warned about ongoing fighting in Darfur. Vu said there have been “uninterrupted campaigns of destruction” against civilians in North Darfur.
“In Darfur there’s been explicit targeting of civilians. There’s been explicit execution,” she said.

Shelling killed five children Wednesday in El Fasher in North Darfur, according to UN spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay. Meanwhile, between July 14 and 15, heavy rains and flooding displaced over 400 people and destroyed dozens of homes in Dar As Salam, North Darfur.

With a looming rainy season, a cholera outbreak and food insecurity, the situation in Darfur is “getting worse every day and that’s what war is,” said Taher.