Report | Call for a “Hunger Revolution”: Aden Government “Flees” from Anger

NYN | Reports and analyses:

The “Yemeni Hunger Movement” has called for what it termed a “popular revolution” against the government aligned with the Saudi-Emirati coalition in various southern provinces, setting today as the date to begin escalation to demand a halt to the currency collapse and the removal of the “corrupt government,” according to a statement issued by the movement, which is based in Taiz.

The “Hunger Movement,” which led a widespread popular mobilization about a year ago, attributed its call for escalation to the failure of that government to prevent the deterioration of humanitarian conditions and to address the widening scope of extreme poverty and unemployment.

Despite the government of Ahmed bin Mubarak in Aden forming a committee to monitor the crises resulting from the currency collapse and the deterioration of electricity services with the onset of summer, many of its ministers have left the city almost en masse, as anger against them and the coalition mounts.

In this context, a source close to the UAE-backed “Southern Transitional Council” told Al-Akhbar that the departure of bin Mubarak and several ministers and officials from his government in Aden the day before yesterday came after “their failure to provide any solutions to the crisis.” He noted that “the coalition summoned the government in light of the rising wave of public discontent against it and the coalition, and the Transitional Council’s accusations towards Riyadh of being behind the crises in the southern provinces.”

The source pointed out that bin Mubarak, who headed to Saudi Arabia, would move on to the UAE to seek urgent aid to save the situation in the southern provinces. However, other sources placed his visit to Abu Dhabi within the framework of escalating disputes between his government and the Transitional Council.

The Aden government faces an unprecedented financial crisis, which has led the Central Bank to announce the urgent borrowing of more than 10 billion riyals through the sale of long-term government bonds with interest rates ranging from 18 to 20%. However, all the bank’s attempts to raise more loans and sell about 120 million dollars through public auctions over the past weeks have not stopped the collapse of the currency, which recorded a new low of 1780 riyals to the dollar and 455 riyals to the Saudi riyal in Aden and the southern provinces.

Bin Mubarak requested the head of the Transitional Council, Aidarus al-Zoubaidi, during a meeting between them the day before yesterday, to transfer the value of a diesel shipment estimated at 60,000 tons expected to arrive at Aden ports by the end of this week to the government treasury. However, al-Zoubaidi refused and called on the government to obtain external support to meet Aden’s electricity requirements.

Bin Mubarak heads to Abu Dhabi following the escalation of disputes between his government and the “Transitional Council”.

The economic and service deterioration has doubled the humanitarian toll in the provinces outside Sanaa’s control, driving thousands of Yemeni families living in Aden and coastal cities to migrate to the northern areas, which enjoy cooler weather.

Sources informed Al-Akhbar that Sanaa and other northern provinces have received hundreds of displaced families, while civil society parties, organizations, and components have held the Aden government and the coalition countries responsible for the collapse, calling for urgent intervention to stop the wastage of the country’s hard currency resources, halt the payment of high salaries to senior government officials in dollars, and reconsider the large inflation in the number of diplomatic staff.

Additionally, the currency collapse has caused fluctuations in the prices of food and essential goods, leading to bread prices exceeding citizens’ purchasing power, with some bakeries raising the price of bread to 100 riyals for a 45-gram loaf, doubling citizens’ suffering. However, the authorities in Aden rejected this pricing and intervened by closing bakeries they described as non-compliant, demanding adherence to the 60 riyals price per loaf. The Bakers and Ovens Association announced a complete strike in Aden, demanding in a statement that bin Mubarak’s government take measures to stop the rise in the prices of bread-making ingredients.

Source: Al-Akhbar Lebanese Newspaper.