4G cut off from Saada.. Houthi fears besiege him in his den
English - Thursday 13 October 2022 الساعة 03:15 pm
Saada, NewsYemen, private:
For more than a week, the Houthi group has continued to cut off the 4G telecommunications service in Saada governorate, less than a month after the service was launched in the governorate by Yemen Mobile, which is under the group's control.
Users in the city of Saada were surprised last Tuesday, when the company stopped the 4G service on their phones and returned to the 3G and 1x data service, just 20 days after it announced the launch of the service.
While the company did not provide any explanation about the reasons for stopping the service, local sources and activists confirmed that stopping the service was ordered by the supervisor of the governorate, Abu Abdullah Al-Hamran, and the widespread objection by activists loyal to the Houthi group on social networking sites was remarkable.
Some of them mocked the justifications offered for cutting off the service in Saada, including preventing the corruption of society and the deviation of young men and girls, and considered this a direct offense to the rest of the governorates in which the service operates, wondering why the service was allowed to be launched in the first place.
While some activists indicated in their conversation that Houthi leaders justify this by security concerns that it would facilitate the spread of the service in monitoring and tracking the group’s elements and leaders in the governorate, which is its main stronghold in Yemen.
On the other hand, observers questioned the validity of these justifications, considering that raising the issue by activists loyal to the Houthi group reflects that the case is a reflection of a conflict between Houthi leaders, and that the decision was not issued by the head of the group, which prevents it from being discussed and put forward by the group members on the social communication sites.
Apart from that, the incident sheds light on the special situation that Saada and its people have been experiencing since the Houthi group took control of it, taking advantage of the protests that took place in Yemen in 2011, to impose its control over the governorate and turn it into a closed and tightly controlled prison.
Since the first moments of its control over the governorate in 2011 AD until today, the governorate has been living in a special situation, where entry and visit to it is difficult for Yemenis and requires security coordination with leaders and supervisors. As for movement within the governorate, it is no less difficult than that and remains under close supervision.
The governorate is also one of the first areas in which the Houthi group imposed, since before 2014, the application of its own laws and its extremist and terrorist ideology on society by force of arms. Singing parties and everything related to art have become taboo.
Restrictions, closures, and severe siege imposed on Saada by the Houthi group reflects the extent of the fears of the society and the reality of the rejection of the majority of the people of Saada for the Houthi project, which was manifested in their standing and the support of the governorate’s tribes on the side of the state in 2004 to confront the group during the six wars.
