Al-Houthi cut off the Internet, causing losses and paralysis in commercial and financial transactions
English - Sunday 23 January 2022 الساعة 02:05 pm
Aden, NewsYemen, special:
Sources said that the Houthi militia has cut off the internet completely by 100 percent, in all parts of the country since the night of Thursday / Friday, January 21, and deliberately not to supply the Central Building of the International Internet Gateway in Hodeidah with an electric generator, which was damaged as a result of an air raid of the Arab coalition in Yemen targeting the militia’s weapons store in Al Hudaydah Governorate.
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in the legitimate government confirmed that the defect was due to damage to the electric generator located meters away from the station, which feeds the Falcon station in Hodeidah, located in the TeleYemen building. This is confirmed by the continuation of the Internet service for two hours, through its operation with batteries, after the Houthis claimed that the station was bombed.
The internet outage in Yemen for the third consecutive day has paralyzed commercial and financial transactions, including remittances from abroad, and widespread social and economic turmoil.
Observers confirm that the Houthi militia isolated Yemen from the world by stopping the internet service from the headquarters of the Yemen Net Company in Sana'a, with the aim of inciting public opinion locally and internationally against the coalition, where cutting internet service is a war crime.
The NetBlocks organization, which specializes in providing tools for the public to monitor internet outages; And the possible economic consequences of blocking the internet, Yemen's daily losses are about 4 million dollars, or 4 billion riyals at a price of 1000 riyals to the dollar.
According to the organization, the economic indicators for Yemen for the year 2020 were applied, evaluating the economic impact of the internet outage on entire population groups.
The interruption of the Internet service has paralyzed the transactions of banks, exchange shops, vital businesses and official functions throughout Yemen.
Despite the dependence of the Yemeni economy on banknote transactions, the possibility of obtaining them depends largely on automated teller machines and exchange shops, and with the absence of Internet connectivity, smart phone applications, such as the remittance system and electronic riyal payment, have stopped.
Remittances from abroad, which are the main lifeline for many Yemenis, have stopped, due to the interruption of communication with international exchange companies, bank correspondence, and dealings with the international financial sector, which highlights the huge humanitarian impacts resulting from the impact of Internet service.
And the Public Telecommunications Corporation of the legitimate government announced in a statement on Saturday night, its willingness to solve the problem of internet outage by linking the governorates that have cut off internet service and connected to the international gateway Hodeidah Governorate and linking them to the international gateway to Aden to resume internet service, in the event that there is a serious response from the Houthi militia.
The Corporation clarified the possibility of connecting with the AAE_1 cable linking Aden and Sana'a and communicating with technicians and engineers in the Public Telecommunications Corporation of Aden, so that we can activate the Internet service with better quality and at a high speed in all Yemeni governorates across the country.
It is estimated that the number of Internet users in Yemen reached 7,659,884 users, equivalent to 27% of the population at the end of 2020.
In early 2021, the Yemen Net Company, which is under the control of the Houthi militia, made a move that surprised the rest of the Yemeni telecommunications companies, as it raised the prices of Internet services significantly and imposed new limits on data.
The prices of Internet services that cover all Yemeni governorates, provided by the "Yemen Net" company, have risen to 130 percent, compared to the period before the Houthi coup against the state in late 2014.
