Yemen accuses Houthis of ”starving” people for political purposes

Yemen’s Information Minister Muammar al-Eryani said that over the past year, Houthi militias have looted more than $1 billion from 5 government sectors.

Al-Eryani said estimates indicate that Houthi militias have seized $200 million in communications over the past year, $650 million in taxes and customs duties, including fuel trade and communications taxes, $150 million in zakat revenues, and $100 million in endowments funds.

“The Yemeni minister pointed to the plundering of hundreds of millions of dollars in black market oil derivatives, private gas and electricity, foreign currency speculation, the looting of the private sector and citizens under the guise of war effort, and other illegal duties”.

He said that the looted funds since the start of the coup have been sufficient to pay the salaries of state employees in the areas controlled by the Houthi militia regularly for the past six years, but that the militia leaders looted and directed them for their own personal accounts, financed the killing of Yemenis, attempted to harm the security of neighboring countries, and threatened national interests.

The minister blamed the Al-Houthi militia for the suspension of employee salaries and the suffering they caused to hundreds of thousands of families who lost their only source of income, and for the continued obstruction of measures to address their situation and the regularity of payment of salaries according to the 2014 Al-Hudaydah port returns to the Central Bank.

Al-Eryani said that the international community has a moral responsibility towards the systematic starvation and impoverishment of millions of Yemenis in areas controlled by the Al-Houthi terrorist militia, in order to humiliate and subjugate them

In a series of tweets, he said that by impoverishing Yemenis, militias have created a humanitarian disaster for trading, bidding and exploiting them for political and material gains.

Activists called for international protection for Yemen’s private sector from looting by Houthi militias in areas under their control, after militias completed the confiscation of all resources and revenues in the government and mixed sector.

Houthi looting of Yemeni funds has escalated, most recently the seizure of the assets of Yemen’s largest bank, the Islamic Solidarity Bank, through illegal court proceedings.