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Yemen: Houthis Hike Prices of Vegetables, Fruits

Yemenis shopping in a food store in Sanaa (Reuters)
Yemenis shopping in a food store in Sanaa (Reuters)
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Yemen: Houthis Hike Prices of Vegetables, Fruits

Yemenis shopping in a food store in Sanaa (Reuters)
Yemenis shopping in a food store in Sanaa (Reuters)

Yemenis in the capital Sanaa and other cities under Houthi control, condemned the militias for imposing high royalties and illegal levies, hiking the prices of fruits and vegetables.

Residents affirmed that prices for many food commodities continued to rise, accusing the militias of imposing more tariffs in the name of taxes, zakat, and support for sectarian events.

Sanaa residents told Asharq Al-Awsat that there were no justifications for the continued high prices of vegetables, fruits, and other foods, lamenting the inaction of control bodies and their failure to react against those who manipulate people's resources.

Hamdi A., a daily wage worker in Sanaa, told Asharq Al-Awsat that he can no longer provide the minimum requirements for his family.

Sources working in the agricultural sector under Houthi control accused the coup leaders of ignoring the repeated price hikes which burdened the public and exceeded their purchasing power.

It argued that the so-called Houthi Marketing and Trade Department, tasked with oversight, only publishes daily price lists that do not match the market prices.

Meanwhile, a recent international report indicated that millions of Yemeni families face gaps in food consumption due to the high prices of food materials and essential commodities. It warned that Yemenis are "one step away from famine."

The Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS) report predicted that a price increase in food and fuel would affect poor Yemeni families in the coming months.

Most of the population lives in a state of food insecurity amid calls to protect farmers from the arbitrary Houthi measures. They demand urgent assistance and support.

Over the past eight years, the group banned the cultivation of various crops, allocating every effort to support and encourage the cultivation of the "qat" plant, which generates vast sums of money for the group.

According to previous local reports, the agricultural sector was greatly affected by the Houthi war, as the total cultivated area for 2018 amounted to about 1.08 million hectares, down from more than 118 thousand hectares from the 2005 levels.

Reports estimated the losses of the agricultural sector as a result of the coup at billions of dollars.

During the past years of the coup, the agricultural sector, like other sectors, saw a significant decline. The group's destructive policies wiped out a third of the farm production in areas under its control.

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Arab World

Funerals Held in Lebanon for Three Journalists Killed in Israeli Strike

A woman stands amid Hezbollah flags on March 29, 2026, in the Choueifat area on the outskirts of Beirut during the funeral of journalists killed the previous day in an Israeli strike in south Lebanon. (AFP)
A woman stands amid Hezbollah flags on March 29, 2026, in the Choueifat area on the outskirts of Beirut during the funeral of journalists killed the previous day in an Israeli strike in south Lebanon. (AFP)
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Funerals Held in Lebanon for Three Journalists Killed in Israeli Strike

A woman stands amid Hezbollah flags on March 29, 2026, in the Choueifat area on the outskirts of Beirut during the funeral of journalists killed the previous day in an Israeli strike in south Lebanon. (AFP)
A woman stands amid Hezbollah flags on March 29, 2026, in the Choueifat area on the outskirts of Beirut during the funeral of journalists killed the previous day in an Israeli strike in south Lebanon. (AFP)

Mourners gathered on Sunday in Choueifat, south of Beirut, for the funerals of three journalists killed by an Israeli airstrike.

Ali Shoeib, a correspondent with Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV, Fatima Ftouni, a reporter with the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV, and her brother Mohammed, a cameraman with the station, were killed in a strike on their car while covering the Israel-Hezbollah war in southern Lebanon on Saturday.

Israel’s military said it had targeted Shoeib, accusing him of being a Hezbollah intelligence operative, without providing evidence. Lebanese officials have condemned the strike as a war crime.

Mourners chanted, “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” as the bodies were buried in an empty lot converted into a temporary graveyard during the war.

“It’s not the first time our colleagues are killed,” said Mohammad Ali Badreddine, an SNG engineer with al-Mayadeen. “It’s a big loss... they were among the brightest and most professional people and also among the kindest people.”

Arab World

Former Algerian President Liamine Zeroual Dies

Former Algerian President Liamine Zeroual casts his vote in the 1997 parliamentary elections. (AFP)
Former Algerian President Liamine Zeroual casts his vote in the 1997 parliamentary elections. (AFP)
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Former Algerian President Liamine Zeroual Dies

Former Algerian President Liamine Zeroual casts his vote in the 1997 parliamentary elections. (AFP)
Former Algerian President Liamine Zeroual casts his vote in the 1997 parliamentary elections. (AFP)

Algeria announced three days of national mourning on Sunday after the death of 84-year-old Liamine Zeroual, the former soldier who served as the country's president from 1994 to 1999.

Born on July 3, 1941 in the eastern city of Batna, Zeroual served in Algeria's National Liberation Army (FLN), which fought for independence from French rule.

After leading a transitional administration during a later civil war, Zeroual organized the country's first multi-party presidential election in 1995, winning by a wide margin.

In 1998, however, he unexpectedly cut short his five-year term, making way for Abdelaziz Bouteflika to succeed him and run the country for 20 years.

Zeroual remained respected in retirement. Algeria's presidency said he had died at a military hospital in Algiers after a serious illness and that flags would fly at half-mast across the country.

Arab World

Lebanon Kids Struggle to Keep Up Studies as War Slams School Doors Shut

UNICEF says the war has left almost half a million students out of school in Lebanon. Anwar AMRO / AFP
UNICEF says the war has left almost half a million students out of school in Lebanon. Anwar AMRO / AFP
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Lebanon Kids Struggle to Keep Up Studies as War Slams School Doors Shut

UNICEF says the war has left almost half a million students out of school in Lebanon. Anwar AMRO / AFP
UNICEF says the war has left almost half a million students out of school in Lebanon. Anwar AMRO / AFP

In a classroom turned shelter for displaced families, teenager Ahmad Melhem follows a recorded lesson on a tablet as the war between Hezbollah and Israel interrupts education for hundreds of thousands of students in Lebanon.

"I don't want to regret not finishing my studies despite the difficult circumstances," said Melhem, whose family was displaced from Beirut's southern suburbs, the site of repeated Israeli bombardment.

"We took a risk and went back to get schoolbooks," he told AFP.

"We're trying with everything we have to continue our education so we can achieve our goals," said the 17-year-old, who hopes to study engineering after finishing high school.

Crisis-hit Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East war on March 2 when militant group Hezbollah fired rockets towards Israel to avenge the US-Israeli killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel has responded with large-scale strikes on Lebanon and a ground offensive in the country's south, killing more than 1,100 people -- including 122 children -- and displacing more than one million people, according to authorities.

The United Nations children's agency UNICEF says the war has left almost half a million students out of school in Lebanon, after more than 350 public schools were turned into shelters and many in areas under Israeli bombardment were closed.

Melhem's family and others are sharing a classroom divided up by plastic curtains at a school in a central Beirut district, the room scattered with thin mattresses and blankets, a table and small stove serving as a shared kitchen.

- 'Digital divide' -

In the corner, Melhem has set up his books and a computer screen, but there is no internet in the room.

An NGO has provided internet access in the schoolyard, crowded with children playing and families socializing, but Melhem says he cannot concentrate because of the noise, so he watches the recorded classes later.

His private school resumed distance learning two weeks after the war began, after cancelling subjects and shortening lessons.

"In-person (class) is better and more engaging," he said. "I miss group work and the science projects we used to do."

According to a 2023 World Bank report, each day of public school closures costs the Lebanese economy three million dollars.

In the courtyard, Melhem's mother helps her other son, aged eight, to follow his online classes.

"If I leave him alone, his mind wanders and he can't keep up with the lesson," says Salameh, 41.

"The war has destroyed everything," she added.

"Education is the only thing left for my children."

UNICEF's head of education in Lebanon, Atif Rafique, expressed particular concern about the future of students who are preparing to enter university while the war continues.

He warned of the dangers of children dropping out of school, especially "girls and adolescent young women" who face additional risks, including early marriage.

'Not even pens'

In Dekwaneh, north of Beirut, at a vocational institute that is now a shelter, Aya Zahran said she spends her day "preparing food and working to make the place livable".

"We have only one phone that my siblings and I share," said Zahran, 17, who is also displaced from Beirut's southern suburbs.

But "the link the school sent us (for online classes) doesn't work", she said.

Rafique said hundreds of public schools lack the resources for distance learning, and noted a "big digital divide" when it comes to internet access, with teachers also affected.

UNICEF has helped launch an online platform with recorded lessons, and a hotline allowing students to access materials through a phone call, without needing internet access.

He said children in south Lebanon have been disproportionately affected by education interruptions since the last round of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah broke out in October 2023.

Just a week before the latest war began, UNICEF reopened 30 schools in the south that had been damaged in the previous conflict, he said.

At the vocational institute's entrance, an education ministry employee was registering children to assess what educational services they need.

"The situation here is very difficult... there's no internet here, and not even pens," said Nasima Ismail, who has been displaced from the northeast Bekaa region, as she signed up her children.

"My children are top students. I don't want them to miss out on their education, as happened to us when we were kids," said Ismail, recalling Lebanon's devastating 1975-1990 civil war.

"I want them to complete their education, even if we are left with nothing," she said.

"I wish them days better than ours."