Coalition snatches Eid rejoicing in Aden

Last updated Jun 7, 2025 9:14 PM

SANAA, June 08 (YPA) – The blessed occasion of Eid al-Adha has brought renewed tragedy to the residents of the coalition-held Aden and other southern provinces who are being grinded their living reality, due to the economic and service crises, which have been ongoing since the beginning of 2016.

The suffering of the people of Aden is no longer hidden from anyone, starting with the pitch darkness that lasts for more than 19 hours a day, amid the spread of cholera and fevers that are killing adults and children alike, the famine that is devastating the lives of most families and the skyrocket of prices that have turned their lives into a daily hell, with the price of a “roti” exceeding 125 riyals, which equals $0.51, affected by the fever of the collapse of the currency there.

In Aden and the rest of the southern provinces, the Yemeni riyal’s plight is no different from the suffering of the citizens. It, too, has been suffered from a continuous deterioration against foreign currencies, with the selling price of the US dollar exceeding 2,565 riyals.

This has halted citizens’ dreams and aspirations for famine and bankruptcy due to the economic collapse, with the Saudi-led coalition’s printing nearly 6 trillion Yemeni riyals without cash cover since the transfer of the management of the Central Bank of Yemen from Sanaa to Aden at the end of 2016. This was a fatal blow to the local currency in Aden, without taking into account the warnings of the Economic Committee in Sanaa at the time.

After ten years, the rosy dreams the coalition countries drew of a comfortable life for citizens have been faded by transforming Aden into the Emirati city of “Dubai”, Even the spokesman for the coalition forces, “Turki Al-Maliki”, who announced from the city of Ataq in Yemeni Shabwa at the beginning of 2022 that the beginning of the phase of transforming the southern provinces of Yemen into “mini-Europe”, have begun. After those promises, the streets and neighborhoods of Aden are being appeared drowned in darkness and sewage swamps. Moreover, the security chaos is expanded with them without “Saudi Arabia and the Emirates” paying any attention to the pleas of the southerners after the coalition drove thousands of their sons to the crematoriums of death to implement its agendas and destructive projects that target Yemen, the land and the people.

On every occasion, the suffering and concerns of the people of Aden is being increases and deepened after the coalition has crushed their dreams and aspirations, without taking any action to alleviate their suffering. Meanwhile, the storms of economic collapse has been continued to plague their lives, killing thousands of people a day under the weight of darkness, hunger, poverty, and a lack of services.

Nearly four governments have failed to manage a city the size of Aden or provide electricity to its people during the hot summer. The only success by the officials of these successive governments achieved has been plundered local revenues and foreign aid, including billions of dollars that Saudi Arabia and the UAE claim to have granted these governments. This is not to mention the taxes and tributes collected from the streets for the benefit of militia leaders, who then use them to establish their own investment projects outside Yemen.

Aden, which before the war on Yemen was the jewel of the Yemeni economy, has become a city, which has been plagued by security chaos, kidnappings, and assassinations since the coalition forces took control of it in the second half of 2015. It is filled with pain and tragedy, and demonstrations, protests, and sacrifices have failed to ensure that its people can live a modicum of decent life.