Dubai, UAE: The month of Ramadan comes for the eighth year in a row, with the continuation of the war and its disastrous effects on the lives of the vast majority of Yemenis, in light of the aggravation of the economic and humanitarian crisis and the deterioration of the local currency prices against the dollar.
This combination of crises facing Yemen has led to an economic and living decline for the population in various governorates, without exception, and has led to a crazy rise in foodstuffs, flour and vegetables.
The Yemeni city of Taiz (the largest city in Yemen in terms of population) has a high rate of commercial traffic and is crowded with shoppers with the advent of the holy month, but the purchasing power is weak due to the scarcity of liquidity.
The economic and humanitarian crises have largely cast a shadow over the lives of the population, with a large segment of the population affected, who lost their sources of income due to the interruption of interests, institutions and companies in the public and private sectors.
Citizen Ahmed Hammoud Saeed told The Eastern Herald : “We have entered the eighth consecutive year of war, and the Holy Month is also entering us for the eighth time, and we are living in difficult economic conditions.”
He added, “But this time, Ramadan was the most difficult for us, as people live in great unemployment and do not have money to buy the needs of the month, except for the few citizens who depend heavily on the returns of expatriates.
The prices of the main commodities in Yemen are rising by 15-40% compared to the end of last year, especially wheat and its derivatives, vegetables and fruits, rice, and some main food items.
Saeed says: “The war between Ukraine and Russia has made matters worse… It has caused a rise in wheat and flour and the greed of traders… While merchants control the prices of commodities that are witnessing unjustified increases… the Yemeni citizen cannot bear all these inconveniences.”
The rise in prices did not exclude any Yemeni city, whether under the control of the legitimate government or even under the control of the Houthi areas.
This crisis also comes in conjunction with the transfer of the Central Bank to Aden Governorate, and the failure of the Arab coalition countries to save Yemen with a financial deposit or benefit from the export of oil and gas.
The local currency (the riyal) is facing a major collapse, to an average of 1200 per dollar, while several months ago it reached 1600 riyals per dollar, compared to 215 before the war in 2015.
Faced with this decline, the government has become unable to fulfill its obligations toward citizens, and has even been unable to pay the salaries of government employees, and all of this cast a shadow over the reception of Ramadan in various regions.
Abdul Basit Al-Shamiri, a government employee who has not received his salary for a year and a half, says: “We are struggling with life as a result of the outrageously high prices …the Yemeni citizen is unable to buy anything.”
Al-Shamiri added that the price difference between the current year and the previous year is large, stating: “I could not buy a box (of ghee), and the difference between it and the previous one was more than 7,000 riyals ($5).”
He said, “Fish, which are among the bounties of Yemen’s seas, have reached 8,000 riyals ($6) per kilo. Our government must wake up and have mercy on the people.”
On Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said that Yemen’s needs are “enormous beyond imagination”, in a message to Yemenis on the occasion of Ramadan.
And last week, the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced that more than 25.5 million Yemenis are now living below the poverty line, as a result of the repercussions of the war that has been going on for more than seven years.
The organization explained in a tweet via Twitter that “seven years of war in Yemen, made 25.5 million people live below the poverty line,” out of 30 million total population.
Yemen is witnessing an ongoing war between the pro-government forces backed by an Arab military alliance led by neighboring Saudi Arabia, and the Iran-backed Houthis, who have controlled several governorates, including the capital, Sanaa, since September 2014.
