Houthis exploiting businesses, banks: Yemeni govt

JEDDAH: Houthi militias in Yemen are exploiting businesses, levying inflated fees, and using bank profits to finance war expenses, the war-torn country’s prime minister has said.
Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr said Houthi militias and rebels regrettably still control YER300 billion generated from areas including customs, trade, telecoms, cigarette sales and cement factories.
In a statement to the official Yemeni Press Agency, the country’s prime minister accused the Houthis of exploiting the private manufacturing and service sectors, making them pay more royalties, and using a significant portion of commercial banks’ returns to cover war expenses.
The prime minister added that such funds should be under the control of the legitimate government of Yemen. Leaving them in the hands of Houthis will harm people’s lives by allowing militias to smuggle in weapons used to kill Yemeni people.
Daghr urged Houthi militias and those loyal to ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh to desist from the illegal control of central bank branches in Sana’a, and allow them to work under the guidance of the bank’s new board of directors and governor.
On Thursday, Yemen’s Ambassador to the UN Khaled Al-Yamani said rebels in his country use collective punishment against Yemenis in areas under their control, having effectively transformed Yemen into a large prison with thousands of journalists, students, activists, academics and politicians languishing in militia detention centers.
In his speech to a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday, Al-Yamani said “rebels, over the past two years, have depleted the state’s resources and capabilities, and trafficked in everything for unholy funds, while sacking billions from the central bank. This pushed the Yemeni government to transfer the central bank to the temporary capital of Aden.”
Al-Yamani said the “government has worked over the past two months to provide the finances needed to pay public servants in the civilian and military sectors their salaries, despite the rebels’ attempts to punish the Yemeni people by threatening all those who cooperate with the government to facilitate the payment of salaries.”
The King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid has meanwhile transported 16 injured Yemenis from Taiz to Sudan for treatment.
The group left from Aden International Airport for Sudan in order to receive treatment at the expense of the center.
In a statement Taiz Gov. Ali Al-Maamari praised the center for covering the cost of treatment abroad and transportation of this second group of injured Yemenis.