The Arab coalition for the support of Yemen’s legitimacy accused the Iran-backed Houthi militias of hindering the delivery of humanitarian aid through safe corridors that it recently opened in cooperation with the United Nations.
Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki said on Monday that despite the opening of three corridors for the movement of citizens and the delivery of humanitarian assistance from Hodeidah to Sanaa, “Houthi militias are still impeding their passage through these routes.”
During a press conference in Riyadh, he noted: “We have received inquiries from the UN organizations on the safe corridors from Hodeidah to Sanaa, and we confirm that the militias are deliberately hindering the delivery of oil derivatives and food aid from Hodeidah to Sanaa, although the three corridors operate from 6 am to 6 pm, in coordination with the United Nations.”
He added that the militias have prevented a ship at the port of Hodeidah from unloading its cargo of fuel, “and have been disrupting the departure of another ship, which is carrying maize, from the port of Salif for more than two weeks.”
On the other hand, the spokesman said that the coalition praised the transfer of $200 million to the Central Bank of Yemen, upon the guidance of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, to maintain the stability of the economy and the Yemeni currency.
He stressed that Yemen’s economy was suffering from the intransigence of the Houthis, who looted more than $5 billion from the central bank in Sanaa and diverted state revenues to military purposes.
Maliki pointed to the humanitarian crimes perpetrated by the Houthis against the Yemeni people, including the targeting last Friday of a camp for the displaced in Al-Khokha, stressing that it was not the first time the militants target the displaced and humanitarian centers.
