... Einmischung der Türkei im Jemen – Bushra Al Maqtari im Interview – Jemen kämpft gegen Coronavirus – Huthis unterdrücken Information über Corona-Tote – und mehr
June 13, 2020: Yemen Heritage series – The Houthis’ feudal new tax – Study: The Long-Term Impact of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas in Yemen – The role of Islah party – Bushra Al Maqtari in interview – Turkey interfering in Yemen – Yemen struggling against Coronavirus – Houthis suppress information on virus death – und mehr
Schwerpunkte / Key aspects
Kursiv: Siehe Teil 2 / In Italics: Look in part 2: https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-658b-yemen-war-mosaic-658b
Klassifizierung / Classification
Für wen das Thema ganz neu ist / Who is new to the subject
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Coronavitrus und Seuchen / Most important: Coronavirus and epidemics
cp2 Allgemein / General
cp2a Allgemein: Saudische Blockade / General: Saudi blockade
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
cp6 Separatisten und Hadi-Regierung im Südjemen / Separatists and Hadi government in Southern Yemen
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
cp9 USA
cp9a USA-Iran Krise: Spannungen am Golf / US-Iran crisis: Tensions at the Gulf
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
cp12b Sudan
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms Trade
cp13b Mercenaries / Söldner
cp13c Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage
cp13d Wirtschaft / Economy
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
cp15 Propaganda
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
cp18 Kampf um Hodeidah / Hodeidah battle
cp19 Sonstiges / Other
Klassifizierung / Classification
***
**
*
(Kein Stern / No star)
? = Keine Einschatzung / No rating
A = Aktuell / Current news
B = Hintergrund / Background
C = Chronik / Chronicle
D = Details
E = Wirtschaft / Economy
H = Humanitäre Fragen / Humanitarian questions
K = Krieg / War
P = Politik / Politics
pH = Pro-Houthi
pS = Pro-Saudi
T = Terrorismus / Terrorism
Für wen das Thema ganz neu ist / Who is new to the subject
Ältere einführende Artikel u. Überblicke für alle, die mit den Ereignissen im Jemen noch nicht vertraut sind, hier:
Yemen War: Older introductory articles, overviews, for those who are still unfamiliar with the Yemen war here:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-einfuehrende-artikel-u-ueberblicke
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
(** C)
UNESCO Produces a Video Series Celebrating Yemen's Rich Culture Heritage
In collaboration with the European Union, UNESCO and RNW Media produced five-episode video series titled Turathna, Our Heritage, to highlight the historical cities targeted in the UNESCO EU cash-for-work project to a larger audience. The series is part of a large cultural awareness-raising campaign to celebrate Yemen's rich cultural heritage. The video series reflected Sanaa, Aden, and Shibam. The videos were hosted by a well-known Yemeni female travel vlogger Somaya Jamal who have explored traveling outside of her home country and has longed to produce content explore its diverse historic cities.
https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-produces-video-series-celebrating-yemens-rich-culture-heritage
Episode 1: Old Walled City of Shibam
The Walled City of Shibam is a unique desert town of mud-built tower houses. It is one of the oldest and best examples of urban planning based on the principle of vertical construction. Its impressive tower-like structures rise out of the cliff and have given the city the nickname of ‘the Manhattan of the desert’.
The dense layout of Shibam surrounded by contiguous tower houses within the outer walls expressed an urban response to the need for refuge and protection by rival families, as well as their economic and political prestige. As such the old walled city of Shibam and its setting in Wadi Hadramaut constitute an outstanding example of human settlement, land use and city planning. The domestic architecture of Shibam including its visual impact rising out of the flood plain of the wadi, functional design, materials and construction techniques is an outstanding but extremely vulnerable expression of Arab and Muslim traditional culture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn9q7htcQKM
More: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vetPnLivZo
Episode 2: Old City of Sana'a
Situated in a mountain valley at an altitude of 2,200 m, the Old City of Sana'a is defined by an extraordinary density of rammed earth and burnt brick towers rising several stories above stone-built ground floors, strikingly decorated with geometric patterns of fired bricks and white gypsum. The ochre of the buildings blends into the bistre-colored earth of the nearby mountains. Within the city, minarets pierce the skyline and spacious green bustans (gardens) are scattered between the densely packed houses, mosques, bath buildings and caravanserais.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Oa2Y3DHmqI
More: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIGEiKGUVjo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSXxTCv8ngg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abmMjac05SE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t2On4PzloY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrU8shVSScw
Episode 3: Historic City of Aden
Aden is situated along the north coast of the Gulf of Aden and lies on a peninsula enclosing the eastern side of Al-Tawāhī Harbour. The peninsula enclosing the western side of the harbor is called Little Aden. The city holds historical significance as a former colonial city in South Arabia which has affected the architectural style of the city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zv1WMSSA7o
Episode 4: Dar Alhajar Palace
Dar Alhajar Palace was built top a tall natural rock spire by the late Imam Yahya Muhammad Hamiddin. The tall castle was intended to be the Imam's summer home, and featured a number of facilities including appointment rooms for his highly appointed guests and separate spaces for cooling water in earthen jars. Currently, the palace is being used as a touristic attraction and a hub of cultural heritage income-generating activities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1srqLmA42Fk
More: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6khrKC9WDyQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sad_ah0dOh4
Episode 5: Old Town of Al Mahwit
Al Mahwit is an old town situated in the northern highlands of Yemen. The town's unique architectural style and use of building materials is influenced by the surrounding environment. The episode takes the audience to explore the town's cultural heritage and the people who have inhabited it for centuries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeQqNXGf7TE
and other films:
Alain Saint-Hilaire .. Yemen 30 years later 2005
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYEozPlCd4Y
Carved in stone, Yemeni palace stands strong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta8MNkxhnmA
Socotra a World Heritage Yemen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtbnemKCFuE
Unusual places to stay in the village of Al-Hajar, Yemen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s3L3TwtG9A
Al Hajjarah | Ancient Village on a Cliff, Yemen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKD45Z7mHDI
(** B H K)
Todesurteil für die Zivilbevölkerung
Jemen: HI-Studie über Langzeitauswirkungen von Bombenangriffen in Wohngebieten
Handicap International (HI) hat am Freitag, 12. Juni 2020 die Studie "Todesurteil für die Zivilbevölkerung: Die Langzeitauswirkungen von Explosivwaffen in Wohngebieten im Jemen" veröffentlicht. Dieser zeigt, wie Bombenangriffe in bewohnten Gebieten Jahrzehnte der Entwicklung im Jemen vernichtet haben und beschreibt die langfristigen Folgen für die Zivilbevölkerung. In dem seit fünf Jahren andauernden Krieg mussten Männer, Frauen und Kinder alle Arten von Explosivwaffen ertragen: Fliegerbomben, Raketen, Artilleriegranaten, Mörser, Streubomben, improvisierte Sprengsätze und viele mehr. Diese haben Brücken, Straßen und Krankenhäuser zerstört und langfristiges Leid über die Zivilbevölkerung gebracht. Die Bombardierungen werfen Jemen um eine ganze Generation zurück.
- 24,1 Millionen Menschen benötigen humanitäre Hilfe
- Mehr als 24% des Straßennetzes wurden teilweise oder vollständig zerstört
- 50% der medizinischen Einrichtungen funktionieren nicht mehr
- 17,8 Millionen Menschen haben keinen Zugang zu sauberem Trinkwasser
Die HI-Studie "Todesurteil für die Zivilbevölkerung: Die Langzeitauswirkungen von Explosivwaffen in Wohngebieten im Jemen" zeigt, wie der Einsatz von Explosivwaffen im Jemen noch jahrzehntelang das Leben der Bevölkerung beeinträchtigen wird. Wichtige Infrastrukturen und Dienstleistungen, die für Nahrungsmittel, Transport, Gesundheit und die Wasserversorgung notwendig sind, wurden beschädigt oder zerstört: Häfen, Brücken, Straßen, Kliniken oder Wasserleitungen. Der Bericht zeigt das Ausmaß und die langfristigen Auswirkungen der Bombardierungen auf die Zivilbevölkerung anhand von sechs Fallstudien. Eine davon ist die Zerstörung des Hafens von Hodeidah durch Bombenangriffe im Jahr 2015. Die Versorgung mit grundlegenden Gütern wurde damals unterbrochen. Bis heute bedeutet dies erhöhte Preise bei lebenswichtigen Gütern. Auch sind notwendige Dienstleistungen weiterhin beeinträchtigt.
Bombardierungen werfen Jemen um eine ganze Generation zurück
Die umfangreichen Bombenangriffe auf Wohngebiete haben das Land um 25 Jahre zurückgeworfen (Quelle: UNDP). Das ist eine ganze Generation. Der Jemen wird nicht in der Lage sein, die extrem hohen Kosten für den Wiederaufbau zu tragen. Zudem muss die Beseitigung der explosiven Kriegsreste finanziert werden: Erst dann kann ein Wiederaufbau beginnen. Dr. Eva Maria Fischer, Leiterin der politischen Abteilung von Handicap International Deutschland, warnt vor den langfristigen Auswirkungen der Bombardierungen: "Bomben und Beschuss im Jemen töten und verletzen Zivilist*innen an Ort und Stelle. Sie haben zudem eine anhaltende Wirkung für Generationen von Menschen, die den Krieg überleben werden. Selbst wenn der Krieg im Jemen heute enden würde, werden die Menschen an den Folgen der zerstörten Straßen, Brücken, Krankenhäuser und Häfen Jahrzehnte lang leiden. Die Schäden an der Infrastruktur haben die humanitären Bedürfnisse im Land weiter verschärft."
Schäden durch Explosivwaffen verschärfen Not - besonders während der Corona-Krise
Laut der Studie "Humanitarian Needs Overview" wurden im Jemen 2018 jeden Monat bis zu 600 zivile Infrastrukturen zerstört oder beschädigt. 50 % der medizinischen Einrichtungen sind heute nicht mehr betriebsfähig. 19,7 Millionen Menschen sind aber auf medizinische Versorgung angewiesen, und 17,8 Millionen Menschen haben keinen Zugang zu sauberem Wasser und Sanitäranlagen. Die Wirtschaftsblockade und der Einbruch der Wirtschaft haben die Kosten für Lebensmittel und Treibstoff in die Höhe getrieben. 24,1 Millionen Menschen benötigen humanitäre Hilfe, das sind drei Viertel der Bevölkerung. HI-Advocacy Expertin Alison Bottomley: "Die Zerstörung wichtiger Infrastruktur durch Bombenangriffe macht es dem Jemen besonders schwer, mit den Folgen einer Pandemie wie Covid-19 fertig zu werden. Die soziale und medizinische Versorgung war bereits schlecht organisiert und wurde durch die fünf Jahre andauernden und wiederholten Bombardierungen weiter massiv geschwächt. Ganze Bevölkerungsgruppen, insbesondere Binnenflüchtlinge, sind extrem gefährdet und haben kaum Zugang zu Gesundheitsversorgung, Wasser und Abwasserentsorgung, um sich vor dem Coronavirus zu schützen".
https://www.presseportal.de/pm/16206/4620697
Zusammenfassung der wichtigsten Ergebnisse: https://handicap-international.de/sn_uploads/de/document/DE_Executive_Summary_Zusammenfassung_final_1.pdf
and full version in English:
(** B H K)
Death Sentence to Civilians: The Long-Term Impact of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas in Yemen
In Yemen, the massive use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas has not only had deadly consequences for civilians, but has also had a dramatic impact on the infrastructure and systems that civilians depend upon to access essential services. Yemen shows how the long-term or reverberating effects of explosive weapons use, referring to how the destruction of infrastructure has implications for the wider systems of services in a country, are just as deadly in a crisis as injuries from the explosion and even impact a greater number of people than those in the vicinity of the original attack. The damage inflicted on the infrastructure and services necessary for food, transport, health, and water threaten civilians and prolong suffering long after the bombing has ended.
The reverberating or long-term effects of explosive weapons use touch on every resource and system in a country. This can include civilians' homes, transportation networks, water and sanitation systems, electricity and power grids, telecommunications systems, hospitals and health facilities, and public buildings. Damage to and destruction of these systems and structures have severe and long-lasting effects. Lack of services caused by the destruction of facilities or infrastructure, as well as the restriction of movement influenced by long-term contamination, are all reverberating effects of explosive weapons when used in populated areas.
In Yemen, where nearly three-quarters of the population is considered in need of humanitarian aid, all infrastructure and public services are indispensable to the survival of the population. The consequences of reverberating effects of explosive weapons use in Yemen have been amplified by in-country pre-existing conditions, including reliance on imports, weak infrastructure, water scarcity, and poverty. Damage to infrastructure by explosive weapons throughout Yemen has an interrelated impact on other services.
Transport systems, including roads and bridges, both critical infrastructure components needed to ensure the provision of supplies and a population's access to services, have been extensively damaged by the use of explosive weapons. The impact of road closures and the destruction of transportation networks makes it harder to transport humanitarian aid, to trade economic goods, to maintain livelihoods, and to access health facilities. The formerly two-day journey between Yemen's major seaports to Sana'a and other large cities can now take up to five days, contributing to the tripling of the price of key commodities such as wheat, flour, and steel since 2015.(3) Airstrikes that damaged bridges on the main road to Sana’a in 2016 disrupted the link for 90% of WFP’s food supplies delivered from Hodeidah. (4
Health services compromised through the destruction of health facilities and the disruption in the transport of essential medical supplies are another example of the reverberating effects of explosive weapons. In Yemen, 49 % of the health facilities are no longer fully functional. (5) The 4 destruction of health facilities in Yemen has denied access to health services for up to 200,000 people in one fell swoop. (6) When key transport hubs are destroyed or made unsafe due to contamination by unexploded explosive weapons, then critical medical supplies and medicines are not delivered. Even the threat of contamination by unexploded ordnance restricts patients from coming to health facilities when needed. Some patients reaching HI-supported medical facilities may have a journey of up to 16 hours. Yemen cannot afford the severe and long-lasting effects of explosive weapons on health facilities while 19.7 million people lack access to adequate healthcare.
The destruction of water infrastructure is another illustration of the long-term consequences of explosive weapons. Sa’ada, a governorate that has experienced some of the most focused explosive weapons violence throughout the conflict, has suffered significant damage to water infrastructure facilities, with an estimated 35,000 households affected in 2018 alone.(8) Yemen cannot afford the incidental or targeted destruction of water infrastructure when over two-thirds of the population currently requires WASH support to meet their basic needs. (9)
https://handicap-international.de/sn_uploads/de/document/Study2020_HI_YEMEN_EWIPA_EN-web.pdf
(** A P)
Houthis reinterpret religious tax to steer more funds to Hashemites
Critics on social media have blasted the Houthis for privileging one group of people based on their bloodline at a time when global protests are highlighting the ills of racism
Houthi authorities in Sana’a have issued a new bylaw on the collection and use of Zakat, an obligatory religious tax, which will directly benefit the ruling family and others in their hereditary class, according to a document issued by the Houthi-run Ministry of Legal Affairs.
Signed by Houthi President Mahdi Al-Mashat on April 29, the executive bylaw imposes a 20 percent tax on all economic activity involving natural resources such as the oil, gas and fishing industries. Zakat is separate from traditional taxes collected by the state.
The legal maneuver is designed to benefit the so-called “Ahl Al-Bayt,” or “Hashemite” descendents of the prophet Mohammed, according to Yemeni lawyer Abdulrahman Barman, who questions the validity of the move.
“The bylaw goes against the constitution, which dictates equality between all Yemenis in terms of rights and duties and says no Yemeni is better than another," Barman said.
Bylaws are meant to explain laws or clarify ambiguous aspects of a particular law.
In this case, the Houthis have expanded the interpretation of the 1999 law of Zakat, which states that the proceeds of the religious tax should go to underprivileged groups including orphans, stranded or needy travelers or the poor.
"The law of Zakat is clear and the bylaw issued by the Houthis contradicts the text of the law itself," Barman said.
Based on the new interpretation, the revenues collected from the tax would go directly to influential Hashemite leaders, religious scholars and other members of the Hashemite clan.
The Zaidi Shia Hashemite class, to which the Houthis belong, were regarded as Yemen’s master race during the dynastic rule of Imams over some parts of northern Yemen for about 1,000 years until the republican revolution of 1962.
Yemenis on social media voiced their outrage at the decision, accusing the Houthis of trying to impose the Shia economic system of “Khums,” which obligates followers to pay 20 percent of their earnings. The critics lamented the fact that Houthis are privileging one group of people based on their bloodline at a time when protests around the world are highlighting the ills of racism and calling for the equal treatment of all people.
https://al-masdaronline.net/national/894
and
(** B P)
Houthis’ “one-fifth” tax sparks accusations of racial, tribal discrimination
A new legislation entitles the Houthis and their cohorts to a percentage of Yemen’s wealth.
A new executive order by the Houthi militias, amending the zakat (Islamic income tax) law in Yemen by adding what has become known in Yemen as the “Khums” (one-fifth) tax on all resources, has sparked a wave of anger among Yemeni activists who considered the measure as affirming the Houthis’ intent and actions towards laying the foundations of an apartheid system in Yemen by dividing society into classes, abolishing the national identity, and legislating to give control of the country’s wealth and state resources to the group and its cronies.
Yemeni activists and politicians considered the Houthis’ move as meant to perpetuate their racist and “tribalistic” approach to Yemeni society ever since they seized power in 2014. They, the Houthis, started by cancelling part of the previous government’s subsidies on oil derivatives, then continued with a systematic policy of depriving citizens of any aid and of concentrating power and wealth in the hands of their group under religious banners.
During the past five years, the Houthis gave up on the plan of using the Yemeni Parliament to enact the new tax law due to the angry reactions it caused. So they resorted to amending the Zakat Law enacted during the era of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Yemeni observers point out that the Houthis’ haste to impose their extremist vision of how to administer the affairs of the state and to enact laws based on their own ideological background is part of their strategy of taking advantage of the chaos reigning in the Yemeni scene and of the conflict inside their opponents’ camp, in addition to being one step ahead of any international endeavours to impose a political settlement in Yemen by always following a policy of fait accompli on the ground.
Najib Ghallab, Undersecretary of the Yemeni Ministry of Information, told The Arab Weekly that the confiscated money goes to accounts held by Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, and that this colossal fortune of money and property is in the tens of trillions. In fact, one of the first measures called for by the closed Houthi dogma is to confiscate the wealth accumulated by the Yemeni elite over the fifty years of the Republican era.
The new Houthi law imposing this type of tax is part and parcel of the plan to concentrate religious and political power exclusively in the hands of the Houthi circle. Ghallab said that, for all practical purposes, the measure legitimises a barely veiled system of political and social enslavement in Yemen and establishes a class and ethnic-based discriminatory system by distinguishing between the “Hashemites” in Yemen and the rest of the Yemeni citizens.
Yemeni lawyer Mohamed Ali Allaw said that the Houthis had failed many times before to pass this measure in the Yemeni Parliament, a measure he described as catastrophic. This prompted them to pursue other means to give it a legal cover. In any case, their persistence simply reveals their extremist sectarian and ideological biases. In this context, Yemeni researcher Rammah al-Jabri called the Houthi militia’s decision plain racist and said it would strengthen class distinction in Yemen and practically hands out a share of Yemen’s public wealth to those who claim affiliation to the Hashemite families in Yemen, in addition to being a perfect illustration of how to use religion and prophetic sayings to rob citizens.
Al-Jabri also said that this decision confirms the ingrained racism of the Houthi militia, despite frequent denials by them of any racial discrimination in their ranks. They do however monopolise state positions and wealth and exclusively hand out important jobs and appointment to people claiming to be of Hashemite families – by Saleh Baidhani
https://thearabweekly.com/houthis-one-fifth-tax-sparks-accusations-racial-tribal-discrimination
and photos: https://twitter.com/BashaReport/status/1270354705974206465
and
(** B E P)
Houthis have been charging controversial Hashemite tax for months
More than five months ago, the Houthis started imposing the 20 percent levy – at times, more – on the owners of sand and gravel crushers, water companies and even chicken farms in areas under their control
The recently formalized 20 percent religious tax that directly benefits the ruling Houthi family and others in their hereditary class has been carried out by the group informally for months, according to multiple sources who spoke to Almasdar Online on condition of anonymity.
More than five months ago, the Houthis imposed the 20 percent levy – at times, more – on the owners of sand and gravel crushers (raw materials for construction), water factories, water pump owners and even chicken farms in areas under their control.
At the end of 2019, the owners of the sand and gravel crushers were surprised by the Houthis’ demand of large sums of money, forcing them to hand over the value of one cubic meter of sand or gravel for every three cubic meters they sold. The price of three cubic meters of quality material has since jumped to 25,000 Yemeni riyals (about $42*), up from about 10,000 riyals (about $17), which had already reflected a threefold price increase from other Houthi-imposed taxes, the sources said.
The sources told Almasdar Online that before the "Executive Regulations of the Zakat Law" was issued on May 29, the Houthis had not declared that the new taxes represented the imposition of the Shia economic system of Khums, or "fifth of Bani Hashim," which obligates followers to pay a tax of 20 percent of their earnings from natural resources.
However, several businesses in industries outlined in the bylaw, including one of Yemen's well-known water factories, have been forced to pay 20 percent of their total production to the Houthis.
According to the sources, the Houthis put their own representative inside the factory to monitor the packaging of bottles and later deduct their share of daily production.
While the taxes are harmful to the owners of the rock-crushing and water factories, they can be devastating to regular Yemenis who have to pay much higher prices for the end products.
The controversial bylaw directs the disbursement of the tax to the Zaidi Shia Hashemite class, known as Bani Hashim, to which the Houthis belong.
https://al-masdaronline.net/national/912
(** B K P)
Rising threat of disintegration of Yemen and the role of the Islah party
Though the Southern Transitional Council in Aden is supported by the UAE, its real legitimacy is rooted in its attempts to counter the rising Saudi interference in Yemeni politics through puppets such as the Islah party
On May 22, the 30th anniversary of the unity between North and South Yemen was celebrated by some groups. The Abdrabbuh Masur Hadi-led faction of the General People’s Congress (GPC) and Islah were leading them. However, the celebration of the Unity Day by these political groups was ironic considering that major parts of the country are not controlled or administered by them. Most of the leaders are in exile and are aligned to countries which are responsible for the destruction of Yemen.
Islah’s sectarian politics
Congregation for Reform or Al-Islah party is the main point of disagreement between the STC and the forces loyal to Hadi today. All of them are members of the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthis. Last year, when the STC took control of Aden in August, it had blamed Islah for collaborating with the Houthis in a missile attack on its forces which killed more than 30 recruits of the Security Belt forces affiliated to it.
The STC has long maintained that Islah has been at the heart of the problems within the coalition. Italso believes that the southern administration was infiltrated and controlled by Islah, which goes against the long-cherished wish of the southerners to govern themselves.
When the Houthis took control of the Yemini capital Sanaa in 2014, they too had blamed Islah for the widespread corruption and pro-Saudi bias of the administration.
Islah’s sectarian outlook was the main reason why the Houthis never trusted Ali Abdullah Salih’s rule and waged war after war against it.
Islah is widely considered an affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood which has antagonistic relations with the monarchs in the Gulf region. However, a large number of Islah leaders were close to Saudi kings. Its leadership, which primarily came from the conservative elite families of the country, sought Saudi help in expanding their political clout in the region.
Most of its cadre come from the Salafi movement sponsored by Saudi Arabia in the 1980s and 1990s. In other words, Islah became a Saudi outpost, an extension of its diplomatic control in Yemen in the 1990s which created fear among ethnic minorities and secular forces alike.
UAE and Saudi Arabia
The Saudis and their main ally, UAE’s Mohammad Bin Zayed, like other autocrats in the Gulf Coordination Council, fear the organized presence of Islamists and see them as the most significant threat to their power. Zayed, in particular, has been seen as the source of most of the anti-Muslim Brotherhood mobilizations across the Arab World since the days of the Arab Spring in 2011. However, Zayed’s relationship with Islah is a bit more complicated. He hosted Islah’s leaders in November 2018 and there seems to be some kind of understanding between the UAE and Saudis about the group’s role in a post-war Yemen. Both the Saudis and the UAE see Islah as a major source of popular support against the Houthis, particularly at a time when Hadi loyalists have no real presence on the ground.
Therefore, viewing UAE as primarily responsible for STC’s anti-Islah stance is wrong. In fact, the attempt by the Saudis and the UAE to promote Islah at the cost of the STC may have antagonized the latter’s leadership further.
Declaration of Self Rule
In November 2019, the Riyadh agreement was signed which established a temporary truce between the STC and Hadi loyalists after clashes in August that year. However, this agreement has failed making any common ground between Islah and STC untenable. Given the zero legitimacy or acceptance of Hadi’s rule in the country and the failure of Saudi Arabia in forming the new government as per the Riyadh agreement, STC automatically becomes the most important player on the ground in southern Yemen.
It is in this context that the April 25 declaration of self-rule and emergency in Southern Yemen, in areas in and around Aden, must be viewed. The fact that most of the other provinces in southern Yemen have rejected this call and shown their loyalty to Hadi has no particular significance as these rulers survive only because of the presence of the Saudi forces.
The real chances of negotiations between different factions remain remote as long as the Saudi intervention continues. Due to the rising threat of the novel coronavirus pandemic, no large-scale fighting is currently taking place.
The administration of Aden, the most important city in the south, is now in the hands of the STC. It faces the challenge of dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak with very limited health infrastructure.
Thus, the STC’s decision has many more dimensions and is not just a factor of external support. It is also clear that Yemen may be in for a long war until Saudi Arabia and its supporters realize that the danger of their imperial game is the disintegration of the country on sectarian lines – by Abdul Rahman
(** B H K)
Voices from the Forgotten War: an interview with Yemeni author Bushra Al Maqtari
Yemeni journalist and novelist Bushra Al Maqtari was awarded the German Johann-Philipp-Palm-Award on May 16, 2020 for Freedom of Speech and the Press. A private German foundation from the town of Schorndorf grants the prize annually. A German translation of Al Maqtari’s latest book, What You Have Left Behind: Voices from the Land of the Forgotten War, was published by Ullstein Buchverlage, and released in early June 2020 in hard copy. The German language e-book translation has been available on Amazon since March 2019.
Al Maqtari was a resounding voice for the people during the 2011 revolution in Yemen as an activist and writer. Before and after the revolution of 2011, she stood publicly and without hesitation for the dignity of the victims and those oppressed by the government and militias. Alongside comrades from various political and social backgrounds, she struggled to reshape political and social life in Yemen, and to place justice, freedom, and human dignity at the center of any future participatory democratic system of governance.
Al Madaniya Magazine interviewed Bushra Al Maqtari about these issues and concerns at her residence in Sana’a.
Bushra Al Maqtari: When you live through the narrative of the war, with death, destruction, killing, displacement, famine, and humiliation; with your personal life and social space being taken away, including your human right to live a normal life; and you are placed in categories based on your geographic origin, with your identity as a Yemeni being taken away by the parties to the war, you face a real test in trying to face this destruction, which impacts you and those around you. The warring parties have undermined everything, leaving most of us with no choice but to die.
That is why I tried to resist this death through writing, whether as daily journaling or in documenting the lives of the victims of the war. I also wrote about cases of corruption and detention and posts on my personal social media account, and I continued to write articles opposing the warring parties. But these articles could not reveal the gravity of what has been done, and is still being done, to us by the warring parties, who continue to fight without any concern for anything other than power.
This is how I came to the idea of the book. It was a simple attempt to document the narrative of the war and its dark memory based on those affected by it. It contains the memories of victims, whose suffering the warring parties insist on deepening and exploiting, and shows how all of the parties in the conflict, in the end, are murderers.
I started by documenting meetings with the families of victims in the areas of Yemen that I was able to visit. The first phase, the collection phase, took around two years. Then, I selected 43 of the testimonies and concluded with my own testimony about my friend, Reham Al Badr, who joined me on the visits to the families of the victims in Taiz City. She was later killed during the war before being able to see the book she had been so excited about. There is also the bibliography, which covered more than two years of the war. The bibliography was a challenge for me, and it took time to organize and edit it with the help of my husband Sadeq Ali Ghanem. He provided support, and helped edit the book. The review process for the book took another year.
From my simple experience in writing a book on the victims of the war, you must first represent their psychological experience, living it and envisioning their private moments, their horror, and their sadness at losing their loved ones. This forces you to listen to them without censoring their emotions. I was unable to remain neutral to their plight, but despite that fact, when I prepared a draft of their testimonies, I tried to ensure that the language toward the warring parties was neutral and objective not to favor any side. The poetic and emotional language of their testimonies was the best way to express the tragedies and pain of the victims and their families, not political rhetoric.
In my own personal testimony on the war, I was expressing my stance towards the war and the warring parties and how they are participating in the killing of Yemenis, regardless of their attempts to justify their violations.
Of course, I am saddened by the language being used in the Yemeni media, and the severity of the political and regional polarization in the cultural scene and in journalism. This language, however, is a reflection of the political reality, which the war has transformed to bring political forces and militias with transnational loyalties to the forefront. These forces and militias put their own interests above the national interests of Yemenis
The events of 2011, or the 2011 Revolution, were, for me, a social movement that aimed to change the system of political and social oppression in Yemen. They also represented hope to achieve social justice. The “revolution” deviated from its track and was militarized. Then, it changed into the transitional dialogue that did not resolve national problems, but instead increased them. This was a big disappointment for me.
The interference of many local and regional factors, in addition to the political exploitation of the revolution, whether by political or tribal forces or by the youth who were at its forefront, have led to the polarization and divisions that caused the war that we are living through today. However, with all of the failures and the continuation of the war, there is, of course, hope. And Yemenis will definitely come back together, if there are national forces that reject the war and the warring parties
https://almadaniyamag.com/2020/06/11/voices-war-interview-bushra-almaqtari-yemen/
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Audio: Bushra Al-Maktari: Stimmen aus dem vergessen Krieg in Jemen
Zehn Millionen Menschen sind im Jemen vom Hungertod bedroht, zwei Drittel der Bevölkerung hat keinen Zugang zu Trinkwasser. Mehr als 200 000 Menschen sind im Krieg getötet worden. Doch jenseits dieser Zahlen ist wenig bekannt über die Nöte und den Alltag der Menschen. Die Journalistin Basra Al-Maktari ist zwei Jahre lang durchs Land gereist, hat über 400 Interviews geführt und in ihrem Buch "Was hast du hinter dir gelassen?" erschütternde Geschichten zu Protokoll gebracht.
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Turkey preparing ‘Libya-like’ military involvement in Yemen: report
New Evidence Suggests Turkey Preparing for Libya-Style Military Intervention in Yemen
Turkey is sending advisors and weapons into Yemen and flexing its influence in the war-torn country as it seeks to expand its power across the Middle East.
As focus begins to turn to developments in Libya and the foreign interference that plagues the Arab country, it seems that Turkey already has its eye elsewhere, preparing for military involvement in Yemen in a move that has sparked concern among Yemenis.
Informed sources in Aden and Taiz revealed to MintPress that a militia belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated El-Eslah Party, the ideological and political ally of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, is already engaged in the latest round of fighting in Yemen’s southern provinces, particularly in Abyan and Shabwa.
The Turkish intervention, which extends to Marib – an oil-rich province located 173 kilometers to the northeast of Ansar Allah-controlled Sana’a, has so far been led by officers, experts, and training personnel, and has involved the delivery of weapons, including drones, for use by Turkish allies on the ground. The move paves the way for wider intervention in Yemen that would resemble Turkey’s role in Libya in favor of The Government of National Accord, which is currently battling General Khalifa Haftar’s forces for control over the country.
The Turkish officers and advisors in Yemen are lending comprehensive support to El-Eslah’s militants who have been fighting against the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in Abyan since April 26, when
Beginning in 2018 and ‘19, dozens of Turkish officers and experts reportedly arrived in many Yemeni areas overlooking the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, particularly in Shabwa, Abyan, Socotra, al-Mahra and coastal Directorate of Mukha near the Bab al-Mandab Strait as well as to Marib. The officers reportedly entered Yemen as aid workers under pseudonyms using Yemeni passports issued illegally from the Yemeni passport headquarters in the governorates of Ma’rib, Taiz, and Al-Mahrah.
Recently, Ankara trained hundreds of Yemeni fighters in Turkey and in makeshift camps inside of Yemen. Moreover, Turkey recruited Libyan and Syrian mercenaries to fight in Yemen bty promising them high salaries to fight for the Muslim Brotherhood in the southern regions and along the western coast of Yemen, according to sources that spoke to MintPress.
One of those sources said that a group of mercenaries was supposed to enter the country last week in a Turkish plane carrying “aid and medicine related to coronavirus pandemic” but the Saudi-led coalition prevented the plane from landing at Aden’s airport. Now, sources say, Turkish intelligence and its allies in Yemen are working on a strategy to enter the country by pushing for eased travel restrictions under the guise of fighting coronavirus.
Yemeni politicians told MintPress that Turkey wants to reach the strategic port of Balhaf and secure for use as a hub to export gas and oil and to control the open coasts of the Arabian Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait for later use as a gateway for Turkish intervention in the region. Turkish control in those areas would provide access to support and supply Turkish military bases in Somalia and Qatar.
This information provided to MintPress was confirmed by the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Libyan Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Masmari, who is recruiting Syrian and Lybian mercenaries with attractive salaries to fight with the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen. At this point, both the Saudi-led Coalition and Turkey have exploited the Yemeni poor, recruiting them to fight in both Libya and Syria.
In Taiz, Turkey has opened training camps, the most important of which is located on the outskirts of the al-Hajariya Mountains near the Bab al-Mandab Strait and is run by Hamoud al-Mikhlafi who resides in Turkey and regularly visits Qatar. Al-Mikhlafi also established the “Hamad Camp” in the Jabal Habashi District. Shabwah, and Marib have also received Turkish support.
Ankara has successfully boosted its intelligence presence in Yemen through the use of Turkish humanitarian aid organizations. There are many Turkish “humanitarian relief organizations” operating in three coastal Yemeni regions: Shabwa, Socotra, and the al-Mukha region in Taiz governorate – by Ahmed Abdulkareem
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Coronavirus und Seuchen / Most important: Coronavirus and epidemics
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31 new cases of COVID-19 reported, 591 in total
http://en.adenpress.news/news/23268
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Hadhramout launches online coronavirus medical consultation via chat apps
https://al-masdaronline.net/local/911
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Wow. Senior #Huthi official tells @BBCArabic : “Revealing or hiding the number of those infected does not lessen or accelerate the spread of the virus. But it cuts back on widespread fear.” Huthis have been accused of covering up real #Covid19 numbers in areas they control.
https://twitter.com/RawyaRageh/status/1271541677639872512
referring to film (in Arabic): https://twitter.com/BBCArabic/status/1271534358608969730
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Maya al-Absi lost her two aunts and two uncles in the capital Sana'a. This is only from one family. Last week my wife @kdhaddad 's brother and her grandpa passed away too. I know many & many people all over the country who died in the recent two months. We are going to die.
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/1271556729168330753
https://twitter.com/MaiaAlabsi/status/1271421692951302145
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UNOCHA: Yemen: Aid agencies continue to scale up the response to COVID-19
Aid agencies in Yemen continue to do all they can to scale up the response to COVID-19. They are prioritizing suppression of virus transmission through community engagement and public information campaigns; procuring and distributing medical supplies and equipment; saving lives by supporting COVID-19 clinical readiness and response capacities; and safeguarding the public health-care system.
But agencies do not have the funding required to deliver at the scale needed, nor to continue existing programmes much longer. The UN is urgently calling on donors to fulfil all pledges immediately and to consider increasing support.
Agencies will be forced to close key programmes unless more funds are provided. Already, incentive payments for health workers have had to be cut amidst a devastating pandemic. Further details on programme cuts will be available soon.
https://www.unocha.org/story/yemen-aid-agencies-continue-scale-response-covid-19
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Coronavirus death rates in Yemen's Aden could exceed its wartime fatalities
The cycle of digging and abrupt funerals continues under the blistering sun and suffocating humidity of Aden, the seat of power of the UN-recognized government in war-torn Yemen.
The Al Radwan cemetery has quickly expanded over the past few months, with new graves creeping closer to the residential buildings that border it. "You can see my digging machine," says Saleh. "Just now I dug 20 graves."
Local medical authorities say that death rates in Aden are soaring this year, despite a relative lull in a war that ravaged the place in previous years
In the first half of May, the city recorded 950 deaths -- nearly four times as many as the 251 deaths in the whole month of March, according to a Ministry of Health report.
The official Covid-19 death toll in southern Yemen stands at only 127. Health workers say they don't know what the actual number is, because of low testing capacity.
"We are a billion short of our minimum target," Lise Grande, the head of the UN's humanitarian operations in Yemen, told CNN. "So In the time of Covid what this means is that we're going to see approximately half of the hospitals which we are currently supporting in the country closed down -- and that's going to be happening in just the next few weeks.
Mokhtar Ahmed, originally from the port city of Hodeidah in the north, came to a camp on the outskirts of Aden three years ago.
"Cholera and the wars are one thing and corona is something else," he told CNN, flanked by his two children.
"With war, we moved from one place to another and we settled down... But with corona, no matter where you go, it will find you."
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/12/middleeast/yemen-coronavirus-deaths-intl/index.html
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Are Authorities Hiding Crisis-Level COVID Deaths In Yemen?
Already reeling from war, the people here now face pandemic, and again, the international response falls short.
Even now, the international humanitarian response to Yemen’s suffering is lacking, and it is actually getting worse than it was before the pandemic began. The Trump administration’s decision to cut off funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) and then to withdraw from the institution entirely will have significant effects on public health efforts around the world. The country that stands to suffer most from the loss of funding for WHO programs is Yemen. Considering the already shameful role of our government in supporting the war that plunged Yemen into its current straits, it is inexcusable that it is also slashing the funding that is needed to provide essential services to Yemeni civilians.
The surge in deaths has been sudden and alarming. PRI spoke to Fatima Saleh, a civil society activist living in Sanaa, and this is what she told them: “I’m seeing condolences to our friends, to friends of friends, on a daily basis. It’s crazy. I mean, we’ve been in a war for, like, six years, but we’ve never seen something like this.”
Hospitals across the country are unprepared to treat COVID-19 cases, and so they have been turning the sick away and leaving them to die at home. The New York Times also reports:
Following years of being lied to and abused, many Yemenis don’t believe anything that the authorities tell them. The breakdown in public trust has further complicated efforts to bring the virus under control.
An accurate count of the number of cases and fatalities is impossible at the moment, but there is every reason to believe that the pandemic is wreaking havoc on a population that has already been brutalized, starved, and subjected to the worst conditions in the world. The U.N. reports that the fatality rate among confirmed cases is 25 percent.
Even more than other countries, Yemen faces a shortage in protective gear and other necessary medical equipment. The U.N. says that the entire country has only 675 intensive care beds and 309 ventilators.
Testing is virtually impossible, so there is no way to know just how widespread the outbreak has become. The cost of face masks is soaring, according to Save the Children. The lack of protective equipment has led to staff shortages as medical workers refuse to come to work without proper equipment, and sometimes this has meant the closure of hospitals. In a country where more than half of the health care facilities were already inoperable because of damage from the war, the closure of these facilities because of inadequate equipment is a particularly heavy blow.
Our government has helped to bring Yemen to its current state of devastation through five years of support for an atrocious war, and now when they need assistance most our government yanks aid away from them as well. It is imperative that we don’t forget about the people of Yemen as they face another disaster – by Daniel Larison
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In Yemen, coronavirus is killing off the educated elite
The deaths of many medics, lawyers, judges and politicians are hanging heavy on the nation, health officials say
While a lack of widespread testing is masking the true scale of the crisis, scores of doctors, academics, engineers, politicians, judges, lawyers and business leaders, as well as high-ranking members of the Houthi militia, are thought to be among the dead as the virus spreads.
It is a devastating blow for a county that has already suffered six years of civil war
The country has limited capacity to test for the virus, but those who have died from symptoms conducive with Covid-19 include: a number of prominent members of parliament; lawyer Abdulaziz Al Samawi, who helped to found Yemen’s Bar Association and represented the Al Qaeda members accused of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Aden; and revered “great poet” Hassan Abdullah Al Sharafi.
Around 30 professors from Sanaa, Aden and Taiz universities have also died, as well as leading consultants in ophthalmology, gynaecology and other medical fields.
High-ranking military commanders in the Yemeni army who have died include commander of the Marib special forces, Col Mohammed Al Hajwri.
Several sources said that a number of members of the internationally-recognised government’s health ministry have gone into isolation after contracting the virus.
The official number of coronavirus cases in Yemen stands at just over 500 and almost 130 deaths. An estimate on the actual number of cases is hard to give, but according to a local union, at least 57 doctors and pharmacists alone have died.
Health professionals in Yemen said the virus has rampaged across the country and is rife in Hodeidah, Hadramout, Ibb, Taiz, Aden, Al Dhalea, and other governates, with the epicentre in the capital, Sanaa.
“There are a number of doctors who have died – just one hour ago I was informed that general surgery specialist Dr Mohammed Ahmed Sayed died today due to coronavirus in Al Hikma hospital,” Dr Abdulrahim Alsamie, chairman of Al Thawra Hospital in Taiz said over the phone on Thursday.
Taiz is Yemen’s most populous governorate and is among those with the highest number of recorded cases.
“When the community sees the highly-educated, especially those who are able to isolate from the virus, are affected, it sends a bad message,” said Dr Alsamie.
He said that there was an added problem when those people are health workers: “the first thing that comes to their minds is ‘if those on the frontline are dying in front of us, what chance do we have?’ It’s very bad for the community.” – by Liz Cookman
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32 Yemen doctors die of coronavirus
Some 32 doctors in Yemen have died as a result of the coronavirus, the Yemeni Physicians and Pharmacists Syndicate announced yesterday.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200612-32-yemen-doctors-die-of-coronavirus/
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Aden University mourns 27 professors' deaths since May amid disease outbreaks
Aden University’s Faculty Union said that 27 of its professors died in May and early June from fevers and other disease outbreaks that have affected the city, including COVID-19.
The disease outbreaks in the interim capital have claimed at least 1,800 lives, according to statistics from the Department of Civil Status and Civil Registry in Aden.
Without specifying the causes of death, Dr. Fadl Nasser Makwa, president of the union, said in a mass obituary that the professors had made significant marks in their academic work.
Dozens of politicians, doctors, academics and judges have died in Aden over the past two months. But without adequate testing supplies, health facilities and trained personnel to diagnose and treat ill patients amid panic during the COVID-19 outbreak, the causes of death in the vast majority of cases are unclear.
https://al-masdaronline.net/local/904
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[Hadi gov.] Health Minister: 30M Yemenis threatened by six disease outbreaks, including coronavirus
Government-controlled areas of Yemen have only 3,000 PCR kits to collect samples of suspected coronavirus cases and six devices to test the samples, Minister of Public Health and Population Dr. Nasser Ba'oum said
Yemen’s internationally recognized government said on Wednesday that nearly all of the country’s population is facing simultaneous outbreaks of six diseases.
"About 30 million Yemenis are at risk of contracting COVID-19, malaria, dengue fever, chikungunya, cholera and typhoid," Minister of Public Health and Population Dr. Nasser Ba'oum said in a meeting with Arab ministers of health.
Government-controlled areas of Yemen have only 3,000 PCR kits to collect samples of suspected coronavirus cases and six devices to test the samples, Ba'oum said. Other sophisticated and expensive equipment in the diagnosis and treatment of several of these diseases, including CT scan machines and ventilators, is in short supply, he added.
The simultaneous disease outbreaks Yemen is experiencing require urgent intervention and support from other Arab countries, Ba’oum said, noting that the recent tropical depression that hit Yemen’s southern governorates has exacerbated the situation.
On Wednesday, coronavirus testing kits arrived to Hadhramout governorate eight days after the previous batch of supplies had run out.
Hadhramout's health offices attributed the delay in the arrival of the supplies to road blockages from the tropical depression in Yemen's interim capital Aden and the poor security conditions in Abyan governorate, where government forces have been locked in clashes with the Southern Transitional Council (STC) for weeks.
https://al-masdaronline.net/national/903
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Film: Yemen ravaged by coronavirus — intensifying world’s worst humanitarian crisis - BBC News
Sophie Raworth presents BBC News at Ten reporting from Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhBz4al0igc
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Hospitals and doctors in Yemen's Taiz facing Corona epidemic threat
The Corona pandemic has exacerbated the suffering of the Yemeni city of Taiz, which has been under siege by the Ansar Allah group, the Houthis, for five years, with a noticeable expansion in the spread of the epidemic, which did not exclude even the medical staff in the southwestern city.
The number counter of daily deaths there does not stop and with a population density estimated at six million people and a near total collapse of the health sector and the blockade that prevented the arrival of medical equipment into the city easily, the cultural capital of Yemen is a candidate for the highest ranking in the list of injuries and deaths caused by the emerging Corna virus (Covid 19).
Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Seif, Consultant General Surgeon at Al-Thawra Hospital and Al-Hikma Hospital in Madinah, died on Thursday.
The Supreme Executive Council of the Physicians and Pharmacists Syndicate affirmed in a statement the death of 32 of the union's members and its loyal symbols in the face of the Corona virus pandemic, which recorded its first case on the tenth of April.
According to the statement, Dr. Seif died from a coronavirus infection. "
Patients with kidney failure in the face of corona
The spread of Corona is a source of fear for the patients of the dialysis department and the employees of the Thawra Hospital Hospital in the city after registering the cases of a number of patients and the nursing staff, while the department lacks the minimum preventive requirements, which threatens to close the center and stop its services.
According to statistics, the number of Covid-19 infection cases with ferroi coruna from kidney failure patients reached 14 cases, including 6 deaths and 2 staff members within three days.
According to medical sources, the spread of the Corona virus among patients with kidney failure increases the concerns of the users of the center and threatens more than 250 patients in addition to workers.
The lists of the dialysis center at Al-Thawra Hospital include 250 people, and the center receives approximately 70 patients every day
PCR solutions
Like the rest of the Yemeni cities, Taiz suffers from a lack of solutions for testing the virus, but its population density requires urgent intervention from relevant international organizations to provide the needs of the central laboratory from testing devices that arrive until they are consumed due to the high number of people infected with the virus.
A medical source in the central laboratory revealed the date of the arrival of a new batch of solutions for the PCR device provided by the World Health Organization, but the source confirmed that these quantities are insufficient compared to the actual number expected of the infection.
https://debriefer.net/en/news-17734.html
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Coronavirus kills judge in Taiz
http://en.adenpress.news/news/23267
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Photos: Supporting women owned businesses to adapt to #COVID19 is saving lives: "Our tailor shop contributes to the protection of doctors on the frontline facing COVID19, & we provide medical protection equipment according to WHO guidance. Thank you #SMEPS"
https://twitter.com/Wesamqaid/status/1271155887151906816
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Information warfare: COVID-19’s other battleground in the Middle East
The internet breeds and amplifies state-sponsored fake news and propaganda
COVID-19 has exacerbated existing political tensions in the Middle East and North Africa, a region already marred by decades of conflict. Now, unscrupulous politicians blame their political enemies or neighboring governments for the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The MENA region is no stranger to conspiracy theories and disinformation practices
In Iran, Yemen and Syria, the so-called “axis of resistance” — whose legitimacy is often tied to virulent opposition to the West — leaders have seized on COVID-19 to reaffirm political positionality and channel hostile anti-Western ideologies.
The Iranian-led ‘axis of resistance’
In the battle for hearts and minds, the Iranian regime’s ideological army — the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — has led a counternarrative about the pandemic, portraying the virus as a conspiracy orchestrated by the regime’s traditional enemies — the United States and Israel.
The propaganda includes claims that the virus is an “American biological invasion” and a “Zionist biological terrorist attack,” leading some of the regime’s defenders to call for a retaliatory response.
Houthi: Iranian proxy voice in Yemen
Houthis often conform to an ideology rooted in victimization and showcase that all of Yemen’s problems are caused by external interventions that started in 2015 with the Saudi-led military campaign. As such, they often blame the Saudi-led intervention that absolves them responsibility for the current crisis.
Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, a member of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, tweeted on March 16, that the Saudi-led coalition is to blame for any spread of coronavirus in Yemen.
Houthis leaders have also exploited the virus to push their base into action and boost military recruitment
The Saudi-UAE axis: Blame it on Qatar and Iran
A widespread narrative in all GCC countries supports the story that the virus was imported from either Iran, the regional epicenter of the crisis, or Iraq, via Shi’a citizens returning from a pilgrimage in Iran.
The Saudi daily newspaper, Al Jazeera, accused Iran of “adding to its bloody terrorism health terrorism” for not having been transparent and allowing the virus to spread.
Saudi Arabia held Iran “directly responsible” for the spread of COVID-19 and Bahrain accused it of “biological aggression” by not stamping passports of Bahrainis who traveled to Iran.
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Houthis end school year in northern Yemen
The Houthi-run education ministry on Thursday decided to end the school year 2019-2020 in Yemeni northern areas under the group's control.
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, school year for the 1-8 basic grades will be ended, the ministry said its decree seen by Debriefer, with marks of all the first term and month tests of second term approved as final result.
https://debriefer.net/en/news-17731.html
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36 new cases of COVID-19 reported, 560 in total
http://en.adenpress.news/news/23256
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Film: "No matter where you go, you find it": coronavirus in Yemen
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2020/06/10/ctw-yemen-covid-coronavirus.cnn
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Film: Yemen COVID-19: Fears cases and deaths are being underreported
Fears that the coronavirus outbreak in Yemen could be worse than thought are being compounded by claims that Houthi rebels are suppressing the real toll. The UN and aid groups are also running out of money to help, with funding falling short of what is needed for basic aid in the country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfGG32m02Bk
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UN: Yemen coronavirus fatality rate is nearly 25 percent
In a report released this week, the UN highlighted Yemen’s “alarmingly high” COVID-19 fatality rate of nearly 25 percent.
Yemen’s coronavirus-related death rate – which eclipses the world’s next-highest rates in Belgium (16.2 percent), France (15.3 percent) and Italy (14.5 percent) – is based on a comparatively small sample size, given the limited number of tests conducted in the war-torn country.
The rate was calculated based on data from Yemen’s National Emergency Committee for Coronavirus, which reported 486 COVID-19 cases, including 112 deaths, between April 10 and June 6.
https://al-masdaronline.net/national/902
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Yemen: COVID-19 spreads across the country, pushing ruined health system over the brink
“At first there were many volunteer doctors and nurses around,” said Dr. Nizar Jahlan, “but when they knew that cases were coming to the hospital, they all disappeared.” This is how the story of COVID-19 began in the Yemeni city of Sana’a, where Médecins Sans Frontières /Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams are supporting the Ministry of Health to run the city’s main center to treat patients with the coronavirus, and is planning to expand that support in the coming weeks.
“At the beginning we faced many difficulties. The hospital lacked almost everything that it needed. But we brought what we could in terms of drugs and personal protective equipment to start activities,” said Dr. Jahlan, MSF medical activity manager for the project. “Then we faced problems in finding enough doctors and nurses willing to work in the hospital.”
The tense atmosphere further complicates the response to the pandemic. “There has been a strange mixture of fear and denial about the coronavirus here,” said Claire HaDuong, MSF head of mission in Yemen. “People haven’t wanted to accept the possibility that it could arrive, or that it was already circulating. But as soon as people have been faced with a case, it has caused panic. But then this is a country that lacks almost totally the means to respond to this outbreak, so it’s understandable that people are scared.”
Unfortunately it is now painfully obvious that the coronavirus is circulating widely across the whole of Yemen, with the 15-bed intensive care unit at al-Kuwait hospital in Sana’a full most of the time for the last four weeks. The team in Sana’a has witnessed a high rate of mortality. MSF teams have treated hundreds of patients with respiratory symptoms in each of our COVID-19 centers in Sana’a and Aden. Centers that MSF runs or supports in the north of Yemen, such as in Hajjah, Khamer, Ibb, Haydan, and Hodeidah, have also received patients, although in fewer numbers.
“I have been working in intensive care units for more than 14 years, and what’s new to me is the dramatic way in which people are dying here,” continued Dr. Jahlan. “They enter the emergency room walking, but they are already deeply deprived of oxygen without being aware of it, and they die in a surprisingly short amount of time. That is shocking.”
One reason behind the high mortality rates is that people often delay seeking care until it is too late. “Unfortunately this seems to be a by-product of the fear about the virus,” explained HaDuong. “People are waiting to come to the hospital until it’s much too late, and it makes it incredibly difficult to save them. We are saying to people: most cases of this virus will be mild, but please, if you have breathing difficulties, come sooner rather than later to see us.”
Dr. Jahlan knows all too well how the patients feel: after weeks of working in the treatment center with seriously ill patients, he became unwell himself. “I think it was the most difficult time of my life,” he said. “I felt that I was just gasping for breath, I worried that I was dying. I had such a high fever.” At first his wife was looking after him, and then she too became sick. Both, thankfully, are now better. But he says that many people he knows have not been so lucky. “A lot of my friends, especially those of them who are doctors, have been sick.”
“Five years of fighting had caused Yemen’s health care system to collapse in large parts,” said HaDuong. “Now COVID-19 has made that collapse complete, with many hospitals closing for fear of the virus, or for lack of staff and personal protective equipment. Many people will die of this virus, but we fear that many others will also die—what should have been preventable deaths—because health care is simply not available.”
MSF is doing all it can to both keep its regular health care programs open and respond to the COVID-19 outbreak in the country. Yet it remains difficult to bring staff and supplies into the country, and the scale of the needs is too great for any single organization to respond to.
Yemen's health-care system has 'collapsed' under weight of coronavirus.
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Coronavirus: MSF, KSRelief aiding Yemen’s COVID-19 efforts despite Houthi challenges
Unlike other epidemics in Yemen, MSF said COVID-19 presented an unprecedented challenge in the country due to the constraints in the movement of its staff as well as the shortage in the global supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE).
To counter the challenges, MSF said it has worked closely with local suppliers to source locally-available materials in order to make non-medical protection gears like face masks and face shields.
“When COVID-19 started to spread around the world, we started brainstorming ideas to find ways to protect our staff and patients when and if the virus made an eventual appearance in the country,” said Armand Dirks, MSF project coordinator in Taiz City. (photos)
My comment: From Saudi Arabia, mixed with Saudi propaganda.
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Houthis say have lowest COVID-19 infections in their areas
The rate of COVID-19 infections in Houthi-held areas is the lowest in Yemen, the group said Tuesday, citing the strict security and health measures taken there.
While Houthi authorities refuse to publicize real figures of COVID-19 infections and deaths in northern areas under their control, the official government has recorded 496 cases, including 112 deaths and 23 recoveries, until Monday evening.
"Government-held areas in the southwestern governorate of Taiz witness the second highest rate of coronavirus infections, after Aden," the Houthi health minister said at a consultative gathering for health sector in Taiz.
https://debriefer.net/en/news-17702.html
My comment: This is scam. Why they actually do it, is difficult to imagine. More:
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Yemen’s rebels crack down as COVID-19 and rumors spread
In the darkness, the bodies of suspected victims of coronavirus are carried in silence, one after the other, to be buried in several cemeteries across northern Yemen. Flashlights flicker as mourners make their way through the shadows.
The corpses are washed with disinfectants, wrapped in layers of plastic sheets and white linen before being laid to rest in six-feet deep pits. There is no one around except for a handful of relatives in masks, gloves, and white gowns. Large gatherings are not permitted. Phones are not allowed.
Grave diggers and guards at the cemeteries are warned not to speak about the causes of the deaths. If asked, they are told to say that the dead are “unidentified bodies from the war,” according to several residents and one gravedigger. Families are never really told if their relatives died from the coronavirus, which is believed to be the culprit. Test results are never released. These daily funeral rituals come as social media are flooded with condolences and photographs of the dead.
The situation is exacerbated in the Houthi-controlled north, where the rebels have suppressed information about the virus, severely punished those who speak out, enforced little mitigation measures, and promoted conspiracies and claims by the Houthi minister of health that their scientists are working on developing a cure for COVID-19 to present to the world. Officially, the rebels say that only four cases of coronavirus have been detected in the regions they control, but have resisted making the number of positive cases and deaths public.
“We don’t publish the numbers to the society because such publicity has a heavy and terrifying toll on people’s psychological health,” said Youssef al-Hadhari, spokesman for the Houthi health ministry, in response to questions by The Associated Press.
His comments come two months after Houthi Minister of Health Taha al-Motawakel painted a bleak picture of the country’s readiness to deal with the virus, saying that at some point Houthi officials will have to deal with 1 million people in need of hospital admissions in a two-month period. He told a parliament session that at one point, doctors will have to choose between whom to rescue and whom to let die.
This is “battlefield medicine,” he said.
The World Health Organization believes that there is a significant undercount of total number of people affected by the coronavirus outbreak, which officials say could further hinder efforts to get the medical supplies needed to contain the virus.
Richard Brennan, the WHO’s regional emergency director, told the AP that he believes the COVID-19 deaths are in the hundreds and cases are in the thousands, based on what he has heard from numerous health providers in Yemen.
Local health officials, aid workers, residents, and community activists who all spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the pandemic, say the situation in the war-torn country is worsening fast. Local unions, who have kept their own death tallies from the coronavirus, report that 46 medical staffers, 28 judges, and 13 lawyers died in a three-week period between mid-May and early June, well above the Houthis’ official count.
The lack of information about the true number of people infected by the coronavirus in Houthi-controlled areas has led to wild speculation about the nature of the disease and the rebel’s response to dealing with the infections and deaths has only added to the confusion.
One widely circulated rumor suggested Houthi rebels have instructed doctors to kill suspected COVID-19 patients with a “mercy injection.”
The rumor, which was given credibility because of a supposedly confidential document allegedly signed by the health minister, gained so much traction that Houthi leaders took the unusual step of issuing an official denial, calling the rumor “lies aimed at spreading fear.” The Houthis themselves have also spread rumors that the virus was spread by outsiders.
Some hospitals, like the Jibla hospital in the northern province of Ibb, one of the worst hit areas, have been called “injection hospitals” because of the high number of deaths happening there, residents and local activists said.
These rumors have caused widespread panic, and residents say they are less likely to notify health officials about suspected cases of COVID-19 .
“People don’t go to hospitals for fear of the mercy injection,” said a local activist, referring to the Jibla hospital. “We can’t tell the truth from the fallacy but I know many people who died in mysterious ways inside this hospital.”
A lawmaker in Sanaa told the AP that people are afraid to report coronavirus cases, fearing retaliation from Houthi officials.
“The suspected cases are treated like war criminals,” he said – by Maggie Michael
https://apnews.com/677a1fc12d864cd37eea57e5f71614a2
Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzOpC0sOYWA
And
(* B H P)
Coronavirus ripping through Sanaa prisons, Yemeni doctors say
The novel coronavirus is ripping through Sanaa prisons as Houthi officials continue to deny the spread of the outbreak in the capital, health officials in the rebel-held city told The National on Tuesday.
Outside jails, doctors in the capital said the situation was catastrophic and that dozens of health officials on the front lines have succumbed to Covid-19 and died without proper protection or support.
"The pandemic started spreading among the detainees in the central prison and in the political security prison in Sanaa," a doctor in a prominent public hospital in the capital told The National on condition of anonymity. "Many prisoners being detained in the central prison were transferred to Al Kuwait public hospital with coronavirus-like symptoms."
Iran-backed Houthi officials have downplayed the virus even as the UN has warned that the war-ravaged country could face tens of millions of cases unless there is urgent action.
"The situation in Sanaa is out of control, many doctors and other medical staff of those who were in charge of combating the pandemic have died from the virus, meanwhile tens of citizens are dying on a daily basis," the doctor said.
He added that most people were just dying at home with no medical care as almost all the hospitals in the city have closed their doors over a lack of protective equipment for staff and a lack of ventilators, testing equipment and drugs for treatment.
and very similar https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/coronavirus-rips-through-sanaa-prisons-yemeni-doctors-say-1.1031254
(* B H P)
Audio: The Weaponization of COVID-19 in Yemen, with Osamah al-Fakih
To get a better understanding of how Yemen’s COVID-19 crisis is unfolding, Al Bawaba with Osama al-Fakih, a researcher and director of communications at Mwatana, which is an independent human rights watchdog in the country.
In the talk, al-Fakih examines the myriad ways in which Yemen’s public infrastructure has utterly collapsed, leaving only those with enough money to access exorbitantly expensive private hospitals the chance to live. We also get into the ways the Houthis have used the outbreak of COVID-19 as a pretext to further restrict the abilities of those living under their rule to assemble or speak out against them.
https://www.albawaba.com/news/weaponization-covid-19-yemen-osamah-al-fakih-1361536
(A H)
Yemen reports 28 new Covid-19 cases, 4 deaths
https://debriefer.net/en/news-17693.html
and
(A H)
28 new cases of COVID-19 reported, 524 in total
http://en.adenpress.news/news/23248
(A H P)
Yemen coronavirus committee waves lab tests for expats stranded in Saudi Arabia
The Yemeni embassy in Riyadh announced arrangements with a Saudi hospital to conduct free lab tests for its stranded nationals, but those in Sharoura say otherwis
The decision to overturn previous directives ordering the coronavirus lab tests came after complaints by those stranded in Sharoura of being charged between 700 ($185) and 1,300 (nearly $350) Saudi riyals for those tests.
The thermal tests are free and the results are immediate, although the device can only identify those with fevers, which is a common symptom of COVID-19. People with high temperatures will first be required to quarantine for 14 days before entering Yemen, as some carriers of coronavirus remain asymptomatic.
https://al-masdaronline.net/national/895
(* A H)
Film: War and Coronavirus in Yemen: Fears Grow as Virus Spreads While Information is Allegedly Suppressed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7zfD4xpo6E
(* A H)
Film: Covid-19 catastrophe in war-torn Yemen cemetery in Aden expands as death toll spike Yemen need aids
https://twitter.com/H24Nnews/status/1270158297413431296
(B E H)
Yemen COVID-19 Joint Market Monitoring Initiative, Dates of data collection: 10 - 14 May 2020
KEY FINDINGS: 10 -14 MAY, 2020
There have reportedly been minimal store closures in the two weeks prior to data collection.
Ninety-three per cent (93%) of vendors did not report any added difficulty acquiring goods due to disruptions caused by COVID-19.
The price of treated water reportedly returned to more normal levels, however the overall WASH SMEB increased due to a reported rise in water trucking prices.
The WASH SMEB in Taizz reportedly increased by more than 100%.
Restocking times in Marib and Amran were reportedly the highest of surveyed governorates.
Many vendors are experiencing issues with price inflation, with a shortage of demand being reported for water trucking vendors.
Vendors reported supply issues as the top COVID-19 related constraints.
(* B H)
Cholera Outrivals Coronavirus in Deepening Yemen’s Woes
Despite the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus in areas held by the Iran-backed Houthi militias in Yemen, it has yet to “rival” cholera, which according to health sources, has infected over 150,000 people in just five months.
United Nations and rights agencies have warned that disease outbreaks in areas held by the Houthis could leave hundreds of thousands of people at risk, especially given the militias’ administrative corruption and looting of humanitarian aid.
The health sources confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that since the beginning of the year, cholera has infected over 150,000 people in the Houthi-controlled provinces of Sanaa, Ibb, Dhamar, Hajjah and al-Mahwit. The death toll has reached 2,400.
The sources warned that cholera would spread further if the necessary health precautions are not taken, especially given the seasonal rain witnessed in Yemen that is the main catalyst in spreading diseases.
and also https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-40125
My comment: This does not fit well for an anti-Houthi blame game.
cp2 Allgemein / General
(* A K P)
Interactive Map of Yemen War
(* A K)
MILITARY SITUATION IN YEMEN ON JUNE 12, 2020 (MAP UPDATE)
https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-yemen-on-june-12-2020-map-update/
MILITARY SITUATION IN YEMEN ON JUNE 10, 2020 (MAP UPDATE)
https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-yemen-on-june-10-2020-map-update/
(* B K pH)
Der Stand nach 1900 Tagen - Verbrechen von Saudi-Arabien und seiner Allianz im Jemen
https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/a.551858951631141/1691694090980949/?type=3&theater
(* B K pH)
Infographic – Statistic of 1900 Days – The Saudi Coalition Crimes in Yemen
https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/a.551858951631141/1691680554315636/?type=3&theater
(* B K pH)
MONITORING GROUP SHARES STATICS OF 1,900 DAYS OF SAUDI OPERATION IN YEMEN (INFOGRAPHIC)
On June 11, the Humanity Eye Center for Rights and Development (HECRD) released an infographic summarizing the results of 1,900 days of the Saudi-led operation in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia, backed by other Arab states, intervened in Yemen in March of 2015 to confront the Iranian-allied Houthis, who gained power in the country.
According to the HECRD’s infographic, Saudi operations have killed 16,672 civilians, so far. At least 3,742 of the victims were children. 2,364 others were women. At total of 26,079 civilians were also wounded.
The infographic also provided a detailed summery of the material damage caused by Saudi-led coalition attacks since 2015. A total of 562,687 civilians houses, 10,998 business facilities, 6,632 agricultural fields and 6,638 transports were destroyed.
(B P)
Photos: Right before @planetlabs further improved its SkySat quality this week, we were amazed to finally see a hi-res shot of the abandoned 350m x 70m FPSO tanker SAFER off the coast of Yemen. She's 44y old and still contains oil aboard, but EXTREMELY dangerous due to gas buildup.
https://twitter.com/TankerTrackers/status/1271027479994609664
(* B P)
Yemen has a long and destructive history of political assassinations
The killing of Yemeni photojournalist Nabil Hasan al-Quaety is only the latest episode.
The recent killing of Yemeni photojournalist Nabil Hasan al-Quaety by unidentified gunmen in Aden sheds light on a long and complex history of unresolved political assassinations in Yemen.
Yemeni journalist and researcher Ahmed Abbas said that Yemen began to see assassinations after the eruption of local and regional conflicts decades ago.
"The most prominent way to get rid of rivals was to physically eliminate them, which was an option taken by all warring sides,” he said.
According to Yemeni researchers, assassinations began to increase following the announcement of the unification of Yemen in 1990, after which political players used their religious ideologies to justify violence against rivals. Most of the victims at the time were leaders and senior officials of the Yemeni Socialist Party.
As political tension escalated in Yemen, assassinations increased.
According to the media official of the Nasserite Unionist Party in Taiz, Mujib al-Maqtari, "assassinations are one of the most prominent obstacles to the transition towards a stable state in Yemen.”
Maqtari told the Arab Weekly that Yemeni writer Qadri Ahmed Haider estimates that there were more than 100 political assassinations in the span of a year during the height of Yemen’s unrest.
With the escalation of political conflict in Yemen, observers expect that the war-torn country will see a new wave of assassinations targeting military, political and tribal leaders of opposing ideologies.
https://thearabweekly.com/yemen-has-long-and-destructive-history-political-assassinations
(* B H P)
Film: Thank you @NZRedCross for hosting a great discussion on #Yemen. I loved discussing @WFPYemen 's work with you & Osamah from @MwatanaEn. These new connections are one good thing to have so far come from #Coronavirus - and they are more important than ever.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=296521171738185
(A P)
US diplomat: Saudi Arabia is looking for alternative to Yemeni president
A former US diplomat revealed on Wednesday what he called "near the end of the term of Yemeni President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi as head of legitimacy" and that Saudi Arabia, which is leading a military coalition to support him, is looking for an alternative to lead the next stage.
The former US deputy ambassador to Yemen, Nabil Khoury, said in an interview with the "Beyond the News" program, on the Qatari Al Jazeera TV, , that Saudi Arabia had consumed Hadi, and it is in the stage of searching for an alternative to replace him to lead the next stage.
Khoury accused the Arab coalition of undermining legitimacy in Yemen, considering allowing the UAE to abort the Riyadh agreement and trying to weaken the recognized government is a clear and frank coup against Hadi's legitimacy.
https://debriefer.net/en/news-17725.html
(* B K P)
In Yemen, a deadly concoction of arms sales, conflict and Covid-19
Without a ceasefire, a humanitarian catastrophe fuelled by Western arms shipments is about to get much worse.
The conflict in Yemen has been fuelled by arms supplied by foreign states to the Saudi Arabian–led international coalition (or SLC).
Since 2015, arms exports to the SLC have continued despite overwhelming evidence that the SLC has been violating human rights and international humanitarian law in Yemen. Most of the civilians killed in the conflict have been killed in SLC airstrikes, many of which have targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure.
The supply of arms to the SLC has prompted efforts to block arms sales through legislative and judicial processes.
As concerns about the spread of Covid-19 in Yemen have escalated, arms sales have continued.
In other words, members of the Security Council have called for a ceasefire while simultaneously providing arms to enable the fighting in Yemen to continue.
This is not the only irony in the Security Council’s response to the conflict. The other is that in 2014 the Council established a sanctions regime for those found to be violating international human rights and humanitarian law. It established a Panel of Experts to review the evidence and help it decide whom to impose sanctions on. Every year since 2016, the Panel of Experts has reported to the Council that all parties to the conflict in Yemen have violated human rights and international humanitarian law, and it has recommended that sanctions be imposed against individuals from all parties. The Security Council has responded by imposing sanctions and an arms embargo against Houthi-aligned individuals, while studiously ignoring the evidence regarding the SLC’s airstrikes and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law – that is to say: the evidence from its own Panel of Experts, which it established for the specific purpose of assisting it to designate individuals and entities to be subject to sanctions.
To be clear: states such as the US, the UK, France, Canada, Germany and others who have supplied arms to the SLC have contributed to the destruction of Yemen’s infrastructure. In doing so, they have aided in the collapse of Yemen’s healthcare system, and thus increased the country’s vulnerability to Covid-19. These countries should now hold themselves responsible for enabling a response to the outbreak. This means immediately ceasing arms sales to members of the SLC, funding the humanitarian response to enable aid agencies to respond to Covid-19, and supporting a Security Council resolution that extends the existing sanctions regime to include individuals engaged in violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, from all sides of the conflict – by Rebecca Barber
(* B H P)
Yemen cannot halt its downward trajectory while at war and divided
Last week's UN-Saudi pledging conference for Yemen was pitiful to watch on UN television. Although the goal set for the exercise was $2.41 billion, the amount pledged was only $1.35 billion, more than $1 billion short. The event was "attended" virtually by more than 124 UN member states, internationalorganisations, United Nations agencies, and non-governmental and civil society bodies.
As the pledging process proceeded painfully, Mark Lowcock, UN undersecretary general forhumanitarian affairs, appeared increasingly distressed. At the end when the figure was announced, he said efforts would continue to raise the funds needed by Yemen, beset by poverty, war, hunger, cholera, dengue and now Covid-19.
[Overview article]
(B P)
Al-Eryani: Since Houthis coup Yemeni media suffered largest unprecedented repression and abuse in modern era
The Minister of Information in the Yemeni internationally recognized government, Moammar Al-Eryani, accused Tuesday evening, the Ansar Allah Group (Houthis) of confiscating and looting all official and private media institutions in Yemen.
Al-Eryani said in his tweets on "Twitter" that "since Houthis coup, Yemeni media suffered largest unprecedented repression nd abuse in modern era, after confiscation and looting of official and private media institutions; TV channels, newspapers, blocking websites, killing journalists and forcibly disappearing them.".
On the day of the Yemeni press, the Yemeni Minister of Information expressed his solidarity with journalists and social media activists, abducted by Houthis militia and dumped behind bars of their illegal detention centers. Majority of them have been arrested 4more than 5yrs.
https://debriefer.net/en/news-17690.html
My comment: it would be nice he would care for the journalists who are prosecuted in the regions under his government’s control.
(* B P)
Saudi Arabia Looks for Yemen Exit Strategy
The kingdom wants to end its five-year commitment in the Yemen conflict without admitting defeat but choices are limited and stakes are high
After half a decade at war with little return, Saudi prospects for extricating itself from Yemen’s civil war are perhaps more appealing than ever, argues Abdulghani Aliryani, senior researcher at Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, in a recently published commentary. He says the best option the Saudis are considering involves making a deal with the Houthis and other stakeholders.
However, making a deal with the Houthis would also include stoking the conflict from abroad to protect the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s (MbS) reputation. Other analysts argue that all realistic exit strategies are difficult for the Saudis to consider, making a deal harder to reach, for the same political reasons.
“Saudi Arabia has been eager to leave Yemen almost at any cost at this point as the costs of the war in terms of both finances and lives has become unbearable on the kingdom amid oil-price and COVID-19 induced economic crisis,” Dr. Andreas Krieg, assistant professor in the Institute for Middle Eastern Studies at King’s College London, told The Media Line. “There are no good options for leaving Yemen with the head held high, as the crown prince, MbS, planned for a short intervention … to defeat the Houthis within a matter of weeks.”
MbS’s hope to ascend to the monarchy would be bolstered by making a deal, with additional political points for not admitting defeat.
Dr. Hussein Ibish, senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, agrees that the Saudis need a deal with the Houthis involving border security, but what is more urgently needed is protection for Saudi cities from Yemen-based attacks.
“Perhaps even more importantly, they must eliminate the missile threat to Saudi cities coming from Yemen,” he told The Media Line.
While Ibish disagrees that the Saudis want to continue the conflict, he notes that Saudi Arabia is not leaving on ideal terms.
“Saudi Arabia is not without options and leverage but it’s not going to simply crush the Houthis and drive them from power as it had hoped to do.”
He argues that Saudi Arabia must continue fighting for other goals in Yemen without relying primarily on the use of force.
“Saudi Arabia may find itself relying more on carrots, in the form of reconstruction and other funding, than sticks in the form of military actions, which has been the preferred method for the past five years. But it hasn’t worked, so obviously the Saudis are going to have to try to achieve their aims with a mixture of soft and investment power as well as hard power,” Ibish said.
Yezid Sayigh, senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut who directs the program on civil-military relations in Arab states, argues that Saudi Arabia paying off Yemeni parties is nothing new but is not for the purpose of continuing internal strife.
Gerald Feierstein, a senior vice president at the Middle East Institute in Washington, who was US ambassador to Yemen under former president Barack Obama, says that a deal containing key elements of Saudi goals in the conflict is also aligned with what the US wants.
“Saudi objectives in the conflict ... a unified Yemen that remains firmly committed to working with its neighbors and with the West ... are consistent with US interests. Saudi failure would risk Yemen becoming a source of new instability in the region, would undermine the fight against terrorism, could pose a danger to international commerce and free passage in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb, and allow for Iranian regional expansion,” he told The Media Line.
Feierstein believes that the Saudis cannot leave until those goals are accomplished.
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/saudi-arabia-looks-for-yemen-exit-strategy-630901
(A P)
Yemeni journalists keep struggling until violence stops: YJS
The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate on Tuesday called on warring parties to end their iron grip imposed on journalism and hostility against the profession.
"Yemeni reporters celebrate their day amid very risky, hard situation and miserable realty suffered by freedom of expression for six years now," the YJS said in a statement on Facebook.
"Journalists' struggle will stop only after systematic violence against them is stopped, plurality values win, and favorable and unfavorable opinions are respected alike," the YJS added on the 'Yemeni Journalism Day'.
https://debriefer.net/en/news-17683.html
(* B K P)
Film: Yemen Conflict: Historical Roots & Future Prospects
Safa Karman speaks in a panel discussion on "Yemen Crisis: Accountability and Reparations", organized by the American Society of International Law, the Stimson Center, and Washington Foreign Law Society. She shared the panel with the former Prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone (David Crane), Former US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes (Stephen Rapp), Senior Director for International Program, Policy and Advocacy at the International Rescue Committee (Amanda Catanzano), and Kate Kizer, Advocacy Director, Middle East and North Africa, Amnesty International
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safa_Karman
cp2a Saudische Blockade / Saudi blockade
(* A E P)
Government, Houthis trade blame over latest fuel crisis in Sana'a
Long queues at petrol stations have been a common sight in Houthi-controlled Sana’a since Tuesday, when authorities announced the impending closure of dozens of the stations to implement a numbering system of the fuel terminals.
In a June 9 statement announcing the closures, the Houthi-run Yemen Petroleum Company (YPC) accused the Saudi-led coalition of arbitrarily detaining 15 ships loaded with oil derivatives off the coast of the port of Jizan in Saudi Arabia preventing the ships from reaching the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah to unload their cargo.
“The fact that the dock in Hodeidah port has been empty of vessels for more than 11 days is a serious indication of the degree of escalation," the YPC said, noting that the "’arbitrary piracy’ will have a catastrophic impact on the measures to combat coronavirus because oil derivatives are necessary to cover the needs of the health, hygiene and water sectors."
The internationally recognized government’s Supreme Economic Council denied the Houthis' claims in a statement, accusing the Houthis of manufacturing the fuel crisis so they can sell imported fuel at a premium on unregulated black markets to finance war efforts.
The United Nations Verification and Inspections Mechanism (UNVIM), which monitors and inspects all cargo entering Yemen’s Red Sea ports, shows that as of June 9, oil tankers carrying nearly 536,000 metric tonnes of fuel were cleared and waiting to enter the anchorage area controlled by Houthis. Almasdar Online was unable to verify why those tankers, holding the equivalent of about three months of fuel for Houthi-controlled areas, had not yet entered Hodeidah port.
UNVIM data show that there has been a consistent backlog of ships carrying about 500,000 metric tonnes of fuel since late April.
https://al-masdaronline.net/national/905
(A E K P)
Fines for delaying oil ships being held by coalition exceeds $66 mlns: Oil Minister
[Sanaa gov.] Minister of Oil and Minerals Ahmed Daress said that the fines of delaying oil ships being held by Saudi-led aggression coalition exceeded 66,185,000 dollars.
In a press conference organized Thursday by the Yemeni Petroleum Company, the minister held the aggression coalition countries, the United Nations and the relevant international bodies responsible for the effects of holding oil derivative ships.
Daress explained that this has caused a crisis in oil derivatives, medicine, and food, in addition to its implications for the economic, health, agricultural, and other conditions that increase the suffering of citizens
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3099286.htm
and also https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=13397
(A E P)
Photo: Happening right now in Yemen capital Sana'a, vehicles are queuing up at petrol stations. The shortage is having its toll on health facilities requiring fuel to operate
https://twitter.com/Shuaibalmosawa/status/1270733591551651840
(A E P)
YPC Employees Denounce International Silence on Maritime Piracy
Yemen Petrolum Company employees mploees, in Al Hodaidah Governorate, confirmed that the continued seizing for oil tankers by US-Saudi alliance is a crime of genocide against the Yemenis, denouncing the silence of the United Nations and its organizations.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=13404
(* A E P)
Ölgesellschaft macht die Aggression für die Seepiraterie und ihre katastrophalen Folgen verantwortlich
Die jemenitische Ölgesellschaft (YPC) sagte, dass die Aggressionstruppen immer noch 15 mit Ölderivaten beladene Schiffe vor dem Hafen von Dschisan halten.
In einer von ihm herausgegebenen Erklärung erklärte das Unternehmen, dass die Aggressionstruppen diese Schiffe weiterhin für verschiedene Zeiträume von mehr als 78 Tagen festhalten, obwohl sie die Verfahren des Überprüfungs- und Inspektionsmechanismus in Dschibuti abgeschlossen und internationale Genehmigungen für die Einfahrt in den Hafen von Hodeidah erhalten haben.
Ölgesellschaft wies darauf hin, dass seit der Ankunft des Schiffes "Destia Pucci" im Hafen von Hodeidah am 23. Mai, das trotz Erlangung der Genehmigung der Vereinten Nationen für sieben Tage im Hafen von Dschibuti für eine Dauer von mehr als 50 Tagen festgehalten wurde, keine Ölsendung in den Hafen einlaufen durfte.
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3099141.htm
(* A E P)
Oil Company blames aggression for maritime piracy, its disastrous repercussions
Yemen's oil company said the forces of aggression are still holding 15 ships loaded with oil derivatives off the port of Jizan.
The company explained in a statement that the forces of aggression continued to detain these vessels for various periods of up to 78 days, despite the completion of the verification and inspection mechanism procedures in Djibouti and the obtaining of UN permits to enter the port of Hodeidah.
It noted that no oil shipments have been allowed into the port since the arrival of the Distia Pucci vessel at the Port of Hodeidah on May 23rd, which was detained for more than 50 days despite being granted a UN permit after being arbitrarily delayed for seven days at djibouti port.
The Yemeni oil company considered that the oil sector sits in the air for more than 11 days, a serious indication of the degree of escalation of the current aggression and the seriousness of the potential repercussions if the piracy of the countries continues to be so barbaric
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3099135.htm
and also https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=13357
(A E P)
[Sanaa gov.] Foreign, Oil Ministers: Detention of Oil, Gas Tankers by US-Saudi aggression Exacerbate Humanitarian Crises
The Foreign Minister also stated that the continuation of the arbitrary measures by the aggression exposes to the entire world of the reality and goals of the US-Saudi aggression. It aims at destroying the capabilities of the Yemeni people and breaking its resilience.
He said, "It is ironic that the talk continues from time to time about holding consultations between the Yemeni parties to reach a just political settlement in light of the escalation by the aggression, the siege and the continued crimes against the Yemeni people every day."
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=13375
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
Siehe / Look at cp1
(B H)
Yemen COVID-19 Joint Market Monitoring Initiative, dates of data collection: 27 May - 4 June 2020
The Yemen Joint Market Monitoring Initiative (JMMI) was launched by REACH in collaboration with the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Cluster and the Cash and Market Working Group (CMWG) to support humanitarian actors with the harmonisation of price monitoring among all cash actors in Yemen
(* B H)
Film: Locusts in Yemen: plague and food source for hundreds of thousands
Yemeni journalist Ahmad Algohbary explains the implications of the latest locust outbreak on a worn-torn country like Yemen, where 10 million people are one step away from famine.
Snippet: https://twitter.com/observatoryihr/status/1271472092983238658
(* B H)
Bombardierungen werfen Jemen eine Generation zurück
Bomben, Armut, Hunger: Der Krieg im Jemen wirft die Zivilbevölkerung im Land um mindestens 25 Jahre zurück. Angesichts des zusammenbrechenden Gesundheitssystems befürchten die Vereinten Nationen ein Massensterben.
Mehr als 24 Millionen Menschen im Jemen benötigen dringend Hilfe. Das ist das Ergebnis einer in München veröffentlichten Studie der Hilfsorganisation Handicap International. Der Untersuchung nach ist rund ein Viertel des Straßennetzes in dem Staat im Süden der Arabischen Halbinsel zerstört. Etwa 18 Millionen Menschen hätten keinen Zugang zu sauberem Wasser.
So habe die Zerstörung des Hafens von Hodeidah im Jahr 2015 die Versorgung mit lebenswichtigen Gütern unterbrochen. Bis heute seien Lebensmittel und Dinge des täglichen Bedarfs nur verteuert zu haben. Zudem würden notwendige Dienstleistungen beeinträchtigt. Der Studie zufolge wird der Jemen nicht in der Lage sein, die Kosten für einen Wiederaufbau zu tragen. Allein die Hälfte der medizinischen Einrichtungen funktioniert nicht.
Angesichts des zusammenbrechenden Gesundheitssystems befürchten die UN ein Massensterben im Jemen. Ohne schnelle internationale Hilfe drohe "unzähligen" Menschen in dem Konfliktland der Tod durch den Corona-Erreger, Malaria, Cholera, Denguefieber und andere schwere Krankheiten, warnte der Sprecher des UN-Hochkommissariats für Menschenrechte, Rupert Colville, in Genf.
https://www.dw.com/de/bombardierungen-werfen-jemen-eine-generation-zurück/a-53788989
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UN Press briefing note on Yemen, 12 June 2020
We are alarmed at the desperate situation in Yemen, where the healthcare system is on the brink of collapse, and are fearful that countless lives will be lost not only to COVID-19 but as a result of malaria, cholera, dengue fever and other diseases. We urge international donors to provide immediate relief to help the millions who have already endured five years of warfare.
We echo the concerns of the UN Secretary-General who said on June 2 that it is now a race against time for Yemen. Already, four out of every five people, 24 million people in all, need lifesaving aid in what remains the world's largest humanitarian crisis.
More than 30 of the 41 UN-supported programmes in Yemen will close in the coming weeks if additional funds are not secured. Now, more than ever, the country needs the outside world's help.
Our Office has received reports of hospitals turning away sick people, some of whom were struggling for breath and with a high fever. There are simply no beds, little equipment, few staff and next to no medicine. Sanitation and clean water are also in short supply.
The country has officially recorded more than 500 cases of COVID-19. However, official reports are lagging far behind actual infections, especially in areas controlled by the de facto authorities in the north. The overall case fatality rate is over 20 percent.
Many functioning health centres lack basic equipment to treat COVID-19. Health workers have no protective gear, and most are receiving no salaries, resulting in health workers not reporting to duty.
We call on the parties to the conflict to agree on an immediate ceasefire, abide by their obligations under international law and take every possible measure to protect Yemenis and ensure their access to medical treatment and information to contain the spread of the current deadly outbreaks in Yemen. And we urge them to allow unhindered access and the delivery of much needed humanitarian assistance to civilians across Yemen.
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25950&LangID=E
(* B H)
Geneva Palais briefing note on the humanitarian situation for children in Yemen
“In Yemen, humanitarian needs have never been more acute, or funding more constrained.
“As of today, UNICEF’s US$479 million appeal to sustain essential basic services for children this year is just 38 per cent funded. The most immediate and critical funding gap is for emergency water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) operations, including for the COVID-19 response.
“Of the 8.4 million Yemenis whose access to WASH will be affected because of insufficient funding, a total of 4 million people – nearly half of them children – directly depend on UNICEF. They are among the most vulnerable Yemenis due to conflict, cholera and internal displacement.
“Unless UNICEF receives US$30 million by the end of June, water, sanitation and hygiene services will start shutting down for these 4 million people in July. This means UNICEF will not be able to provide fuel to operate water pumping stations, or de-sludge sewage, or maintain crumbling water and sanitation infrastructure. It means we will not be able to distribute basic family hygiene kits that include soap, which is so critical for preventing both cholera and COVID in a context where millions don’t have access to handwashing facilities.
“To keep WASH services running through the end of the year UNICEF requires US$110 million. This level of funding will allow us to reach an extra 2.8 million people who we project will require assistance by then.
“The criticality of maintaining safe water, sanitation and hygiene provision cannot be overstated in the context of a running cholera and diarrhoea epidemic. Over 137,000 cases have been recorded since the beginning of the year, nearly a quarter of them among children below 5 years old.
“UNICEF’s COVID-19 response in Yemen is also severely under-funded. As of today, just 10 per cent of UNICEF’s US$53 million funding requirement had been received.
(* B H)
GIEWS Country Brief: Yemen 10-June-2020
Conflict continue to threaten agricultural livelihoods
Despite attempts to negotiate ceasefire, persistent fighting continues to seriously compromise all economic activities, including agriculture. Agricultural inputs, mostly imported, remain in short supply and expensive. High fuel prices, albeit lower than one year ago reflecting the slowdown in the global economy, are constraining agricultural activities, particularly those related to irrigated crops. To cope with the elevated production costs, farmers have shifted from irrigated to rainfed crops, which yield lower output, and relay more on family labour instead of employing hired workers.
Abundant precipitation enabled breeding of desert locusts, particularly in the interior. Here, hopper bands and mature swarms have formed in May, some of which could migrate to northern Somalia and northeast Ethiopia. The country’s capacity to survey and control pests is minimal due to lack of equipment.
http://www.fao.org/giews/countrybrief/country.jsp?code=YEM = https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/giews-country-brief-yemen-10-june-2020
(A H)
Turkish charity distributes food aid in Yemen
Turkish Red Crescent distributes 450 food parcels to people with disabilities
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/turkish-charity-distributes-food-aid-in-yemen/1871404
(A H)
4 deaths from patients of chronic kidney diseases and 2 suspected cases in the dialysis unit in al-Thawrah hospital in #Taiz city and the doctors call for emergency procedures to save the patients' lives. The unit lacks the capabilities to conduct #coronavirus tests
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1270373253807251457
(B H)
[Sanaa gov.] Health Ministry Spokesman: Lack of Oil Derivatives Causes Catastrophe in Health Sector
Spokesman of the Health Ministry, Dr. Youssef Al-Hadhri, said Tuesday that the lack of oil derivatives will cause a catastrophe in the health sector.
Dr. Al-Hadhri said in a statement that the health sector depends on oil derivatives, and their absence means stopping hospitals from work.
He added that the siege stopped more than 60% of the health sector’s work after a number of health centers were paralysed and drugs entry was banned.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=13351
(A H)
IKRK-Flugzeug kommt am Flughafen von Sanaa an
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3099100.htm
(A H)
UNICEF-Frachtflugzeug kommt am Flughafen von Sanaa an
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3099095.htm
(B H)
Yemen: Secondary Desk Review on WASH Assessments - Key Findings (May 2020)
This factsheet summarizes the key findings of a Secondary Desk Review of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) assessments in Yemen from 2019. This review was conducted by REACH Initiative on behalf of the Yemen WASH Cluster in order to provide an overview of WASH-related needs across the country.
Severity Scores for each district and numbers of People in Need of WASH assistance (PIN) were calculated based on a review of available data.
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
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Fast 100.000 Jemeniten seit Jahresbeginn vertrieben
Seit 2015 herrscht Bürgerkrieg im Jemen, immer mehr Menschen werden vertrieben. Die Corona-Krise stellt Hilfsprogramme im Land vor zusätzliche Herausforderungen.
Im Bürgerkriegsland Jemen sind seit Januar mehr als 94.000 Menschen vertrieben worden. Nur 5.200 von ihnen konnten zurückkehren, teilt das Flüchtlingswerk der Vereinten Nationen (UN) mit.
Die UN warnten vor Finanzlücken, die zu Kürzungen bei humanitären Programmen im Kampf gegen die Pandemie und gegen den Hunger von Kindern führen und die Situation verschärfen könnten.
Im Süden des Jemens wurden am Donnerstag Gefechte zwischen Regierungstruppen und Separatisten gemeldet. Mehr als 85 Kämpfer auf beiden Seiten seien getötet worden, meldeten Sicherheitskreise, Dutzende Familien seien vertrieben worden.
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UN agency: More than 94,000 Yemenis displaced since January
The U.N. refugee agency announced on Thursday that more than 94,000 people have been displaced and forced to flee their homes in several parts of Yemen since January, a grim statistic reflecting the devastation brought on by the civil war in the Arab world’s most impoverished country.
“The ongoing conflict in Yemen continues to displace people from their homes as they struggle to survive,” UNHCR said in a tweet. The agency said the number of over 94,000 — including at least 15,000 households — were displaced between Jan. 1 and June 6. Only about 5,200 people were able to return to their places of origin in that period, added the UNHCR.
https://apnews.com/de8ec4113abfa310bb6b212bc2f25475
(B H)
'Two years living under trees', that's simply what most IDPs go through. I still have vivid painful memories visiting camps in Dec 2016; women had to put their scarfs on trees to mark it as a family place to ensure no other family/ people would approach the tree!
https://twitter.com/HanaalShowafi/status/1270649416035246081
referring to film:
What makes this kind of shelter by UNHCR #Yemen special? It's made from a local material called "khazaf"
Displaced Yemenis & host community get cash for work to build them A solution made by Yemenis, for Yemenis, with Yemeni material
https://twitter.com/UNHCRYemen/status/1270611990801551361
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
Siehe / Look at cp1, cp1a
(* A H P)
Al Houthi militants forced the closure of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office and other UN offices in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a on June 11, reportedly due to the UNHCR conducting activity harmful to Yemen’s national security. The al Houthi movement accused UN staff of covering up three coronavirus cases in UN offices in Sana’a in mid-April.[2]
(B H P)
In Yemen, the Houthis have weaponised aid with help from an unlikely source
International agencies have indirectly facilitated the rebel group’s corruption
Operating from areas under Houthi authority weakens the agencies’ leverage because control over aid delivery is effectively left in the rebels’ hands. The impact of Houthi authority on humanitarian functions is a result of its control over issuing visas, security clearances and monitoring of operations, as well as the group’s insistence on regular liaison.
The Houthis can use this control to choke the aid pipeline as they see fit.
As The National has reported previously, the Houthis have used their leverage over humanitarian aid to enrich themselves. “They are giving the aid to Houthi fighters instead of giving it to those in desperate need and the rebels are using it as a weapon of war,” Hamza Al Kamaly, Yemen’s deputy youth minister, was quoted as saying.
The group also targets and detains aid workers to use as bargaining chips. For instance, the Houthis refused to renew a visa for the head of the UN Human Rights Office in Yemen in June 2018. It also confiscated a World Health Organisation staffer’s laptops and external drives, which were thought to contain evidence on aid corruption.
My comment: By an UAE news site, with a strict anti-Houthi bias.
(B P)
Film: This the Houthis Oath being enforced in schools & universities. Students & employees have to pledge allegiance to AbdulMalik Al-Houthi
https://twitter.com/BShtwtr/status/1271276393582809094
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Yemen Rights Group Reveals over 30,000 Child Soldiers Recruited by Houthis
The Yemeni Coalition of Independent Women (CIY) revealed that Houthi militias have continue to brainwash children in order to recruit them to their fighting ranks.
CIY’s revelations came as a reminder of the thousands of violations carried out by the Iran-allied group against the children of Yemen.
During a virtual session, Dr. Wissam Basandouh, a political activist, pointed out that the number of indoctrinated child soldiers fighting for Houthis has reached over 30,000, all of whom are aged under 15.
In his opening remarks, Basandouh said that Houthis persuade poverty-stricken parents with money and then process the children through seminars that indoctrinate them into the Houthi sectarian agenda and ideology. After being brainwashed, child soldiers are sent to fight on the frontlines instead of going to school.
and
(A K P)
Yemen [Hadi government] demands int’l pressure to stop Houthi recruitment of child soldiers
My comment: They should care for their own child soldiers as well.
(A P)
Houthis extort private healthcare in Yemen: Information Minister
[Hadi gov.] Yemen’s Information Minister Muammar Al-Iryani said Houthi militia are looting and extorting the private healthcare sector, state news agency Saba News reported.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1687481/middle-east
(A P)
[Hadi] Gov’t addresses the UN on Houthis’ discriminatory act
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohammed Al-Hadhrami sent a letter on Wednesday to the United Nations (UN) Special Envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths on the Houthis’ application of a new discriminatory act.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-40150
referring to
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Yemen's Houthis slammed for 'Descent From Prophet' tax
Money generated by the so-called Zakat tax will now go not only to the poor
Yemen's Houthis have been castigated by the country's internationally recognized government and ordinary citizens for changing an Islamic tax law so that some revenue goes to families who claim descent from the Prophet Muhammad - including the rebels themselves.
The amendment applies to a 20% duty on utilizing natural resources, such as the oil, gas and fishing industries. Money generated by the so-called Zakat tax will now go not only to the poor and to fund public services, but also to families considered Hashemites, or ancestors of the Prophet. The shift was approved by the Houthi political council in April, but wasn't widely known until now.
Yemeni social media users also criticized the Houthi move, saying the rebels were promoting privilege based on bloodline at a time of protests against racism around the world. Houthi supporters defended the amendment of a 1999 law.
Zakat is separate from traditional taxes collected by the state. It's typically defined as a religious levy paid from the assets of solvent Muslims for the benefit of the poor, and is one of the five pillars of Islam.
and by a Saudi site, similar: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2328696/houthi-khums-sparks-rage-yemen
and
(A P)
In the coming tweets, I will explain the new taxation scheme in #Yemen that the Houthis are attempting to enforce & how it crosscuts with racism, social class system, religion & sectarianism
In the eyes of many Yemenis, Houthis are pushing towards adopting a social class system with an extreme sectarian vibe. This law will hit the Yemeni social fabric because it divides the society between Hashemites & non-Hashemites
The law is also a sign of ensuing sectarianism.
https://twitter.com/BShtwtr/status/1270903425652359170
My remark: More in cp1.
Fortsetzung / Sequel: cp6 – cp18
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-658b-yemen-war-mosaic-658b
Vorige / Previous:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-657-yemen-war-mosaic-657
Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-657 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-657:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose oder / or http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm
Der saudische Luftkrieg im Bild / Saudi aerial war images:
(18 +, Nichts für Sensible!) / (18 +; Graphic!)
http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm
http://yemenwarcrimes.blogspot.de/
Liste aller Luftangriffe / and list of all air raids:
http://yemendataproject.org/data/
Untersuchung ausgewählter Luftangriffe durch Bellingcat / Bellingcat investigations of selected air raids:
Untersuchungen von Angriffen, hunderte von Filmen / Investigations of attacks, hundreds of films:
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