Severe gas crisis suffocates people of Shabwa

SHABWA, May 08 (YPA) – The city of Ataq, the capital of the oil-rich Shabwa governorate, which is under the control of UAE-backed factions, witnessed a domestic gas crisis on Thursday.

Long queues of dozens of citizens stretched in front of filling stations in the governorate’s capital, Ataq, amid a lack of solutions from local authorities due to the permanent residence of governor Awad Al-Wazir in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi.

Citizens lined up for long hours in front of domestic gas filling stations amid an unprecedented rise in demand, with residents confirming that the crisis worsened after the closure of car gas filling stations.

Some owners of gas-powered cars rushed to resort to domestic gas cylinders as an alternative to operating their cars, while some stations refused to fill citizens’ cylinders, claiming that the available quantities had run out.

The crisis contributed to the creation of a black market for domestic gas, and the price of a gas cylinder rose to more than 12,000 riyals, an increase of 5,000 riyals over the official price.

Activists from Shabwa mocked the US-Israeli bombing that targeted the port of Hodeida and the oil port of Ras Issa, not Shabwa, without recording a domestic gas crisis in areas under the control of the Sana’a government.

This comes at a time when Shabwa and the rest of the southern governorates, including the city of Aden, are experiencing successive crises in electricity, fuel, and gas, which increases the suffering of citizens and deepens popular discontent with the coalition, the “Leadership Council,” and its affiliated government, whose members reside in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.