Houthis tax Yemen government-controlled port imports

Big Ben Aden rises prominently above Aden harbor, Aden, Yemen, Sept. 9, 2022. (Reuters)
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Updated 16 August 2023
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Houthis tax Yemen government-controlled port imports

  • Latest Houthi move means Yemeni businesses importing goods through Aden or Al-Mukalla ports in southern Yemen will be required to pay levies twice
  • Yemeni government has reiterated its threats to close Sanaa airport, and restrict the movement of fuel and goods ships through Hodeidah ports

AL-MUKALLA: The Iran-backed Houthis have slapped a 100 percent levy on items imported through government-controlled ports, the latest in a series of moves aimed at straining Yemen government finances.

The Houthi Ministry of Finance said that any products imported through Aden port and other government-controlled ports or land crossings will be subject to the same tax and customs fees as those imported through the port of Hodeidah when they pass through their checkpoints.

Traders will be required to pay the taxes in cash at Houthi checkpoints in Sanaa, Taiz and Al-Bayda in order to enter markets controlled by the militia.

In an effort to deplete Yemeni government finances, the Houthis launched drone strikes on oil facilities in the southern provinces of Shabwa and Hadramout, halting oil exports. The militia also banned gas imports from the government-controlled city of Marib and forced local traders to redirect their goods from Aden port to Hodeidah port.

The latest Houthi move means Yemeni businesses importing goods through Aden or Al-Mukalla ports in southern Yemen will be required to pay levies twice, once for the government and once for the Houthis.

Yemen’s Minister of Information, Muammar Al-Eryani, described the levy as a “new escalation” by the militia in order to strain the Yemeni government’s finances, forcing it to miss payments for public employees and abandon other responsibilities.

Al-Eryani warned that the Houthi economic war will worsen the humanitarian crisis in the country and bring about an economic catastrophe.

“We renew the warning against the continuation of the Houthi militia in its escalatory course, which exacerbates the deteriorating human suffering, and threatens the collapse of the economic conditions,” he said.

As with previous Houthi economic measures, the Yemeni government has reiterated its threats to close Sanaa airport, and restrict the movement of fuel and goods ships through Hodeidah ports, the two primary facilities that the government granted to the Houthis under the UN-brokered ceasefire.

“We affirm that the government will not stand idly by in the face of this dangerous escalation, and will be forced to reconsider the facilities related to the re-operation of the port of Hodeidah, and take the necessary measures that preserve the interests and capabilities of the Yemeni people.”

Yemeni economists and government officials argue that the Houthis imposed high taxes to make it difficult for traders to import products through Aden, taking advantage of the fact that more than 70 percent of the Yemeni population lives in Houthi-controlled areas.

“This is part of complicating matters for businesses who import through the government ports and attempting to force them to use shipping lines that go straight to the port of Hodeidah,” Mustafa Nasr, director of the Studies and Economic Media Center, told Arab News on Tuesday.

Houthi economic measures against government-controlled ports have resulted in a significant decline in customs and tax revenues for the government, as traders bowed to pressure and imported products through Hodeidah, experts said.

“The decrease in the volume of products passing through the port of Aden and other (government) ports has resulted in a decline of up to 70 percent in government revenues from taxes and customs fees,” Nasr said.

International organizations released reports indicating a significant decline in imports through government-controlled ports and an increase in the flow of products through Houthi-controlled ports.

Food imports through the Houthi-controlled Hodeidah and Salif ports reached 2,038 metric tons compared with 693 tons imported through the government’s Aden and Al-Mukalla ports in the first half of this year, according to a report released by the World Food Program on Aug. 10.


Turkiye man kills seven before taking his own life

Updated 2 sec ago
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Turkiye man kills seven before taking his own life

Istanbul: A 33-year-old Turkish man shot dead seven people in Istanbul on Sunday, including his parents, his wife and his 10-year-old son, before taking his own life, the authorities reported on Monday.
The man, who was found dead in his car shortly after the shooting, is also accused of wounding two other family members, one of them seriously, the Istanbul governor’s office said in a statement.
The authorities, who had put the death toll at four on Sunday evening, announced on Monday the discovery near a lake on Istanbul’s European shore of the bodies of the killer’s wife and son, as well as the lifeless body of his mother-in-law.
According to the Small Arms Survey (SAS), a Swiss research program, over 13.2 million firearms are in circulation in Turkiye, most of them illegally, for a population of around 85 million.

2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA

Updated 7 min 26 sec ago
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2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA

  • The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night

Yabad: The Palestinian Authority said two Palestinians, including a teenage boy, were killed during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank village of Yabad.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night, leading to clashes during which soldiers shot dead two Palestinians.
The two dead were identified by the Palestinian health ministry as Muhammad Rabie Hamarsheh, 13, and Ahmad Mahmud Zaid, 20.
“Overnight, during an IDF (Israeli army) counterterrorism activity in the area of Yabad, two terrorists hurled explosives at IDF soldiers. The soldiers responded with fire and hits were identified,” an Israeli military source told AFP.
Last week, the Israeli army launched several raids in the West Bank city of Jenin, killing nine people, most of them Palestinian militants.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7 last year after Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 777 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 24 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.


Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike

Updated 44 min 45 sec ago
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Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike

  • The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday
  • Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army on Monday said it had struck a Hezbollah command center in the downtown Beirut neighborhood of Basta in a deadly air strike at the weekend.
“The IDF (Israeli military) struck a Hezbollah command center,” the army said regarding the strike that the Lebanese health ministry said killed 29 people and wounded 67 on Saturday.
The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday, leaving a large crater, AFP journalists at the scene reported.
A senior Lebanese security source said that “a high-ranking Hezbollah officer was targeted” in the strike, without confirming whether or not the official had been killed.
Hezbollah official Amin Cherri said no leader of the Lebanese movement was targeted in Basta.
Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign, later sending in ground troops against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The war followed nearly a year of limited exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the Gaza war.
The conflict has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September this year.
On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed.


HRW says Israel strike that killed 3 Lebanon journalists ‘apparent war crime’

Updated 25 November 2024
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HRW says Israel strike that killed 3 Lebanon journalists ‘apparent war crime’

BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch said on Monday an Israeli air strike that killed three journalists in Lebanon last month was an “apparent war crime” and used a bomb equipped with a US-made guidance kit.
The October 25 strike hit a tourism complex in the Druze-majority south Lebanon town of Hasbaya where more than a dozen journalists working for Lebanese and Arab media outlets were sleeping.
The Israeli army has said it targeted Hezbollah militants and that the strike was “under review.”
HRW said the strike, relatively far from the Israel-Hezbollah war’s main flashpoints, “was most likely a deliberate attack on civilians and an apparent war crime.”
“Information Human Rights Watch reviewed indicates that the Israeli military knew or should have known that journalists were staying in the area and in the targeted building,” the watchdog said in a statement.
HRW “found no evidence of fighting, military forces, or military activity in the immediate area at the time of the attack,” it added.
The strike killed cameraman Ghassan Najjar and broadcast engineer Mohammad Reda from pro-Iran, Beirut-based broadcaster Al-Mayadeen and video journalist Wissam Qassem from Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television.
The watchdog said it verified images of Najjar’s casket wrapped in a Hezbollah flag and buried in a cemetery alongside fighters from the militant group.
But a spokesperson for the militant group said he “had no involvement whatsoever in any military activities.”
HRW said the bomb dropped by Israeli forces was equipped with a United States-produced Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit.
The JDAM is “affixed to air-dropped bombs and allows them to be guided to a target by using satellite coordinates,” the statement said.
It said remnants from the site were consistent with a JDAM kit “assembled and sold by the US company Boeing.”
One remnant “bore a numerical code identifying it as having been manufactured by Woodard, a US company that makes components for guidance systems on munitions,” it added.
The watchdog said it contacted Boeing and Woodard but received no response.
In October last year, Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed by Israeli shellfire while he was covering southern Lebanon, and six other journalists were wounded, including AFP’s Dylan Collins and Christina Assi, who had to have her right leg amputated.
In November last year, Israeli bombardment killed Al-Mayadeen correspondent Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih Maamari, the channel said.
Lebanese rights groups have said five more journalists and photographers working for local media have been killed in Israeli strikes on the country’s south and Beirut’s southern suburbs.


16 survivors rescued after tourist boat sinks off Egypt’s Red Sea coast

Updated 10 min 34 sec ago
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16 survivors rescued after tourist boat sinks off Egypt’s Red Sea coast

CAIRO: Egyptian authorities rescued 16 people after a tourist boat sank off its Red Sea coast, three security sources told Reuters on Monday, as search operations continued for the remaining passengers and crew members.
The boat, Sea Story, was carrying 45 people, including 31 tourists of varying nationalities and 14 crew, on a multi-day diving trip when it went down near the coastal town of Marsa Alam, according to a statement by the Red Sea Governorate.
Governor Amr Hanafi said some survivors were rescued using a helicopter and have been taken to medical care. Efforts to locate more survivors were ongoing in coordination with the Egyptian navy and army.
The governorate said a distress call was received at 5:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) and that the boat had departed from Porto Ghalib in Marsa Alam on Sunday, with plans to return to Hurghada Marina on Nov. 29.
The Red Sea is a popular diving destination renowned for its coral reefs and marine life, key to Egypt’s vital tourism industry.