Intimidating journalists ... The "Anonymous" coalition invests in the organized confusion of Aden's security
English - Monday 08 June 2020 الساعة 06:06 am
Aden, Newsyemen, Editorial Team:
After the assassination of journalist Nabil Al-Qaiti, the photographer accredited to the French Press Agency, in the city of Aden, southern Yemen, the southern journalist Salah Al-Aqel, correspondent of RT with its Arabic version, received an explicit threat of a similar fate from an anonymous number.
Al-Aqel said: "I received threats from unknown numbers ... after the assassination of my colleague and brother Nabil, I received messages that I will be next."
Thereafter, RT Network Director Margarita Simonyan said that Russia takes the threats seriously , noting that the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Russian Ambassador to Yemen helped evacuate the journalist Salah Al-Aqel and his family.
The matter did not stop there, as three other southern journalists received similar threats of liquidation, including Hussein Hanshi, director of the Aden Center for Strategic Studies and editor-in-chief of Al-Marsad newspaper, and Saleh Abu Awadhel, Saleh al-Ubaidi, all close to the leadership of the Southern Transitional Council.
Commenting on the matter, journalist Hussein Hanshi said on his Facebook account: "Yes, we face threats and there’s nothing new ?! Since we started the press work, we are always facing threats, but this time we are more powerful and more capable of confrontation in our land."
He continued: "The southern forces are facing artillery shells on the fronts of Al-Dhalea and Abyan.. soldiers, journalists, politicians and security men who are targeted with booby traps."
In no case can the death threats against the four journalists, and before that the assassination of a AFP photographer, be separated from their media activity, in covering armed confrontations between the southern forces, the forces of the interim president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and the Muslim Brotherhood in the coastal town of Shuqra, east of Aden.
This reinforces the statement of Reporters Without Borders, pointing out that "numerous criticisms have been directed against Nabil Al-Qaiti from various currents loyal to the government of the Islah Party (the Yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood), as accusations of receiving money from the United Arab Emirates.
Al-Qaiti became famous for his courage in the press, as he covered the war to liberate Aden and the war to liberate Marib, and also participated in covering the West Coast war, before accompanying the forces of the Southern Transitional Council in the Abyan fronts, which made him appear to be a target of extremist groups with increasing media incitement by elements Muslim Brotherhood.
A recent report by the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate painted a bleak picture of the state of the profession of journalism and journalists, in Yemen, since 2015 due to the oppression and massive violations they are exposed to at all, but the assassination of Al-Qaiti is the first planned killing targeting media workers since the current war has begun, and this incident will have political implications and will increase the feeling of the southerners towards their collective grievances, as seen by Fatima Abu Al-Asrar, a non-resident fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.
The threats against southern journalists reflect the great impact that these journalists have been able to make among public opinion at home and abroad; In addition to harming their professional work, the Brotherhood and its associated terrorist groups decided to silence them at times, as happened to the journalist Nabil Al-Qaiti, and at other times to intimidate.
Organized confusion for the security of Aden
It seems that the party behind the intimidation faced by southern journalists, especially those residing in Aden, is taking advantage of what might be called a “silent war” on the security forces in the city, to mobilize opposing journalists in a narrow angle, so that their options become confined between two things: silence on their daily crimes, or murder.
The repeated condemnations made by local and international agencies did not succeed in ending the moral and material abuse that haunted Yemeni journalists, since the threats made by the parties hiding behind the guise of "legitimacy" for a number of southern journalists, in the wake of the assassination of Al-Qaiti, gave the impression that those parties are determined to cause the greatest harm to journalists with opposite directions.
This sharp escalation against the southern journalists comes at a time when the security formations in Aden, in all their names, are under pressure from catastrophic measures that aim in general to undermine and dismantle these security units.
The confusion of the security forces in Aden would exacerbate journalists fears of physical assassinations, while at the same time helping those who threaten to suppress the transitional council’s voice help turn it into revenge actions in reality.
And there have already been reports of a tendency to impose a local force that received training in the Saudi city of Taif to replace the security belt forces, in parallel with the stopping of the monthly salaries of employees of this force, which was formed with the support of the Arab coalition forces, after the liberation of the city from the control of the Houthi militia.
