War-weary Yemenis protest local currency collapse

By Shukri Hussein

ADEN, Yemen

Angry demonstrators on Monday blocked a number of main roads in Yemen’s eastern Hadhramaut province in protest of the rising cost of living as a result of the local currency collapse.

The Yemeni riyal severely plunged against foreign currencies in the past few days. One dollar is traded now for 600 riyals, from only 513 riyals in mid-August.

“Protesters set tires on fire in the streets of Seiyun city in protest of Yemeni currency collapse and rising prices,” a local resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Andolu Agency.

In the city of Al-Qatn, stores shut their doors in protest of the deteriorating economic situation.

On Sunday, Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi ordered an increase in oil exports and a pay raise for civil servants as part of efforts to deal with the currency collapse.

In January, Saudi Arabia intervened to save the local currency by depositing $2 billion in the Yemeni Central Bank, but the move seems to have a little impact on strengthening the Yemeni currency.

Impoverished Yemen has remained wracked by conflict since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.

The conflict escalated the following year when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies launched a wide-ranging air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi gains in Yemen.

The violence has devastated the country’s infrastructure, prompting the UN to describe the situation as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.