UAE -backed militia imposes new levies on heavy transport drivers in Aden

ADEN, Dec. 28 (YPA) – The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC)’s militia imposed new levies and royalties on heavy transport drivers, in exchange for entering the customs of the port of Aden, in southern Yemen.

 Video footage has been circulated by activists on social media, one of heavy transport drivers confirmed that the STC militia, which is tasked with guarding the port, has become a profession of thuggery and imposing levies on drivers in exchange for tankers entering customs without any legal justification.

 The driver explained that the militia’s insolence in imposing levies did not precede them in taking money by force, and prevented them from entering until they  pay an amount of 2000 riyals.

 The abuse of drivers at customs and the port is provocative, he said, noting that drivers are forcibly dying because of what they called ” Bullying ” practiced by militia members of the STC at the customs entrance.

Since 2019, the STC has been using the revenues of Aden port and customs for the benefit of its militias, with more than 600 million Yemeni riyals, equivalent to one million dollars per day, and depositing them in accounts with local companies, without supplying them to the Central Bank of Aden.

Major Yemeni traders and importers demand the opening of the port of Hodeida to their commercial goods due to the high costs of transportation and imposition of levies and royalties by the  UAE-backed militia at the port of Aden and along the road it controls.

E.M