Houthi control of Hodeidah port doubled food prices by 50%
English - Wednesday 28 April 2021 الساعة 10:32 pm
Aden, NewsYemen, Exclusive:
The United Nations Development Program recommended immediate intervention to develop the capacities of the port of Aden and the port of Mukalla to ensure that vital commercial and humanitarian supplies reach the Yemenis, and to avoid the high cost of food commodities entering through the port of Hodeidah, which is under the control of the Houthi militia.
The Houthis have clung to the port of Hodeidah since they took control of it in 2014, and it has become a Houthi hotbed for smuggling weapons into Yemen, especially from Iran, as well as manipulating humanitarian aid that arrives through it, blackmailing merchants, monopolizing the supply of fuel, and the movement of goods transport.
In its report, "Damage and Capacity Assessment: Port of Aden and Port of Mukalla," the United Nations Development Program said that the continued operation of the port of Hodeidah, with its costs incurred on food commodities since the beginning of the war, will turn the risk of famine into an increasing reality for millions.
Economists confirm that what the Houthi militia is doing in the port of Hodeidah in terms of destroying, obstructing and exposing the path of humanitarian aid and merchants' imports, is one of the main dilemmas that the Yemeni people have faced since the start of the war.
The United Nations Development Program indicated that half of the cost of the prices of goods entering Yemen through the port of Hodeidah is the cost of transportation, such as the cost of freight, the cost of insurance and delay penalties.
The Houthi militia's repeated attacks on ships in the International Maritime Pass, the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and their deployment of sea mines and explosive boats, prompted insurance companies to raise insurance premiums against the high war risks that are directly converted to the cost of food.
Shipping companies incur 16 times more war risk premiums than anywhere else.
According to United Nations data, nearly 50,000 Yemenis suffer from hunger and live in conditions similar to famine, not from lack of food, but from the high cost of imported products, which leads to higher market prices, making easily available food unaffordable for the average Yemeni.
The Houthi militia has used the ports of Hodeidah and Salif to serve its military and economic agenda, and has besieged the people, over the past six years.
Economists are unanimously agreed that regaining the port of Hodeidah from the grip of the Houthi militia will be of strategic importance for national food security and securing international shipping.
