Peaceful Sit-in Committee warns foreign movements of plunder precious minerals in Mahra
MAHRA, Jan. 01 (YPA) – Head of the political department in Peaceful Sit-in Committee in Mahra province, Saeed Afrai, warned of the serious repercussions regarding the sale of the port of Qishn and the looting of Qish mountain range, in eastern Yemen, by the coalition-backed government.
He affirmed on Facebook that the Qishn port’s project is not related to trade and official maritime services for the people of the province, similar to international commercial ports, but related to searching and excavating precious metals and looting them abroad.
“The precious metals in Mountain Sherwin benefit mainly from a group of brokers, and a small and limited percentage to the concerned authorities, while the majority goes to foreign countries,” referring to the looting of sovereign wealth in Yemen by foreign companies,” Afrai said.
He added that the project of renting and selling the port of Qishn means preventing the fishermen of Mahrah from entering the sea to obtain their source of livelihood, in addition to preventing citizens from approaching the livestock grazing areas surrounding Mountain Sherwin.
Afrai stated that the port would be dedicated to transporting precious metals from the interiors of Mountain Sherwin and other mountain chain, and work on transporting them abroad.
He reiterated his warnings of the process of bulldozing the mineral wealth in the province, noting that the coalition being determined to create large camps in the region on the pretext of “protecting the site from the east and west”, which warns of hitting the tourist area of Qishn.
Last June, several Yemeni activists had warned that the “Ministry of Transport” affiliated with the coalition-backed government would contract with an unknown company to rent the port of Qishn at the lowest price, for 50 years, in a clear and explicit waste of the sovereign resources in Yemen.
Earlier Head of the “Hana Aden Center for Studies,” Anis Mansour, revealed that the port project’s cost reaching 130 million dollars, and Ajham Energy and Mining Company Ltd had a capital of 20 million dollars and paid five million dollars under the contract to the Ministry of Transport in the government.
AA