Houthi militias increased fuel prices in Sanaa and other areas under their control to gain more profits to use in their war effort, regardless of the hike's impact on the citizens’ lives and livelihood.
The legitimate government issued a statement condemning the Houthi move and Yemen's national Economic Committee stated that the insurgents are “inducing an oil products crisis to boost sales of the commodity in black markets that they run.”
The Committee said the “coup militias aim to cause further deterioration in the country's humanitarian conditions to trigger international attention and obtain political gains,” according to Saba news agency.
It also considered the Houthis’ move a deterioration of the economic and humanitarian situation, serious commercial exploitation, and an attempt to cancel the government's decision no: 75, which limits illegal oil trade in Yemen.
The Committee announced that since the beginning of 2019, it had issued docking permits to 396 tons in vessel shipments of oil products to meet the needs of the Houthi-held areas, which is more than 53 percent of the total oil product shipments admitted into the whole country.
This amount is enough to cover the needs of these areas until mid-May 2019, explained the statement, adding that causing a shortage and a crisis is an economic destruction.
The statement pointed out that cooperation between the Economic Committee and the Arab alliance in general, and Saudi Arabia in particular, to apply the mechanism to regulate and control oil derivatives trade is purely professional work to strengthen the national currency and prevent its collapse.
As of Tuesday, the Houthi group has taken a decision to increase the price of petrol from 325 riyals per liter to 365 riyals while raising the price of diesel to 430 riyals.
A number of Houthi companies in the pro-Iranian areas control fuel trade, and economists estimate that the group's profits could reach $2 million per day, aside from the profits it gains from selling domestic gas (LGP).
