Service to Houthi Militias… Brotherhood Rejects Government Decision to Establish a New Telecommunications Company
The Muslim Brotherhood group has rejected the government’s decision to establish a new telecommunications company that serves liberated areas and ends the Houthi dominance over the telecommunications sector in Yemen.
Twenty-one parliamentary deputies, most of whom are from the Brotherhood-affiliated Reform Party or aligned with them, sent a letter of objection to the Prime Minister regarding the creation of a joint telecommunications company between the government and the “NX” telecommunications company operating in the United Arab Emirates, according to Yemen News website. The parliamentarians stated in their letter that their reason for rejecting the government’s decision is the fact that the parliamentary committee formed to investigate various issues, including the telecommunications sector, has not concluded its work. They demanded that the Prime Minister await the committee’s report, which will be submitted to the House of Representatives’ presidency at an unspecified time before addressing the council later with its findings.
The letter was accompanied by a campaign launched by Brotherhood-affiliated media outlets and some of their activists, in an attempt to halt the project that represents a glimmer of hope to end Houthi dominance over the telecommunications sector in Yemen. Some social media activists expressed astonishment at the vehement attacks on the government after its significant step to end Houthi militias’ control over the telecommunications sector in Yemen. They explained that the Brotherhood confirms its keenness to ensure the continuous flow of telecommunications revenues to the Houthis on a monthly basis, in exchange for not allowing a telecommunications company to operate, solely because it has a connection to the UAE.
The letter addressed to the Prime Minister revealed the deliberate effort to undermine any serious government initiatives to regain control of the telecommunications sector from under Houthi administration, which is reaping billions of riyals for its private treasury. It is worth mentioning that the Yemeni government provided clarifications to the parliamentary committee in May of the previous year regarding the telecommunications sector and the importance of establishing a new company in liberated areas, away from Houthi control. However, the parliamentary committee continued to procrastinate and ignored discussing the government’s response and expressing an opinion on it.
The Yemeni Ministry of Telecommunications had refuted the claims propagated by the Brotherhood that establishing the new company is a sale of “Aden Net” company. The ministry clarified that these allegations and fabrications are untrue, and the project is a partnership and investment between the government and a leading telecommunications company. The goal is to develop and expand the “Aden Net” project in accordance with the current laws.
It is worth noting that there are more than 15 million subscribers in both wired and wireless telecommunications companies, including 11 million subscribers in the “Yemen Mobile” company – the largest mobile company in Yemen under the control of Houthi militias. These subscribers pay around one and a half billion riyals monthly, in addition to service fees and taxes that are more than 20 times the original cost.
