“Deadly Pesticides”… Houthis Launch Repression Campaign to Silence Activists
Pro-Houthi activists claim that the movement has initiated a repression campaign to silence them in the wake of the toxic pesticides scandal, which has become a public issue revealing the involvement of senior leadership.
Houthi militias stormed the home of pro-Houthi activist Khalid Al-Arasi on Saturday on Rabat Street in the besieged capital of Sanaa, arresting him and taking him to an unknown location for his involvement in the banned pesticides campaign and for exposing over 38 Houthi leaders for importing and smuggling them.
Activists and local sources told “Al-Ain News” that two security patrols, one of them marked “criminal evidence,” and female militias participated in the raid on Al-Arasi’s home before arresting him in front of his children and wife.
Activists on social media accused the so-called “security and intelligence service” affiliated with the Houthis of arresting Al-Arasi and launching a widespread campaign to muzzle pro- and anti-Houthi activists who contributed to raising the issue of deadly pesticides imported and smuggled by the Houthi leaders.
The arrest of Al-Arasi, who wrote several articles including “Stop Killing Us… Pesticides Are Genocide,” came days after threats of arrest and elimination targeting several activists, including activist and unrecognized employee of the Ministry of Agriculture, Haji Al-Muqtri, who accused senior Houthi leaders of being involved in importing and selling pesticides banned locally and internationally before closing his page on the social media site Facebook.
The trafficking and importing of internationally banned toxic pesticides have become a public issue in Yemen, where activists, some of whom are sympathetic to the militias, revealed the involvement of the so-called president of the Houthi government council, Mahdi Al-Mashat, and his influential chief of staff, Ahmed Hamed, in releasing shipments of banned pesticides belonging to the influential leader Abdul Azim Daghsan late last year, circulating a minutes of evidence to prove it.
The pesticide issue sparked a fierce conflict among Houthi militia leaders, transferring the conflict from secrecy to public exposure and revealing the extent of the danger facing Yemenis, following its leaders’ importation of deadly and internationally banned pesticides, including methyl bromide, mancozeb, dorzepan, and concentrated abamectin.
Documents leaked by Houthi leaders from the so-called Houthi “Ministry of Agriculture” acknowledged that the militias allowed several of their traders, including Daghsan, to import over 5 million liters of pesticides and poisons between August 1, 2023, and January 14, 2024.
Another document seen by “Al-Ain News,” addressed to the so-called Houthi Minister of Agriculture Abdulmalik Qassim Al-Thawr from his deputy Daifallah Shamlan, revealed that the quantity of pesticides declared imported by the militias in 2023 alone amounted to 14,465,888 liters, describing it as a “crime against humanity.”
Activists accuse Houthi militias of causing an increase in the number of cancer patients due to the trafficking and importing of internationally banned toxic pesticides, with the number reaching 43,735 by the end of 2022, most of them in agricultural provinces.
