The United Nations has not criminalized Houthi's abolition of the currency and has called to face government’s decision
English - Saturday 18 January 2020 الساعة 10:53 am
aden,newsyemen
The United Nations Office of Humanitarian Affairs told the Security Council that the Houthi ban of printed banknotes after 2016 dismantles the entire economy and raises food prices; but it has not criminalized the action of the Houthi militia, and called for confronting the government's decision to suspend the salaries of sector employees in Houthi-controlled areas.
Ramesh Rajasingham - Director of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs at the United Nations Office, attributed the reason for the recent depreciation of the currency's value of 640 riyals to the dollar in Aden and 580 riyals in Sanaa, to what he described as "a dispute over the printed banknotes after 2016." At the same time, he alluded to the necessity of a new Saudi deposit to protect the riyal from deterioration.
"With foreign exchange reserves drastically reduced, the first step is to create a regular foreign exchange pumping program, as in the past, that helps lower the exchange rate and makes it easier for people to afford what they need to survive," said Ragasingham.
The Houthi militia’s decision in mid-December caused the collected of new banknotes in the south, creating a black market, and significant losses for citizens and the commercial sector in the north and center of the country, which means that basic commodities are unsustainable for millions of people across the country.
In a briefing to the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Yemen, the UN Humanitarian Affairs Officer said that after the decision to ban the currency, the government announced that payments to civil servants and retirees in the north could not be made, estimating that about a quarter of the population relied on these payments to cover their expenses.
Rajasingham added, “The government stopped paying salaries to employees in the Houthi regions, and we are witnessing again some of the basic conditions that pushed Yemen to the brink of starvation a year ago - Government Decision No. 49 requiring fuel importers to pay import taxes and customs duties on Aden- we must not let that again .”
Observers said, despite the establishment of Security Council Resolution 2140 and 2216 a sanctions regime that mandates the Yemeni Sanctions Committee to identify those responsible for serious violations, the Security Council will not announce that it will impose sanctions on the Houthi militia that surrounds people in their lives.
They affirmed that the practices of the Houthi militia, preventing the access to and the seizure of aid, and preventing it from dealing in the new currency, meet the criteria for sanctions in accordance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
