Local currency’s collapse exacerbates citizens’ suffering, deepens living crisis in Aden
ADEN, June 22 (YPA) – Citizens in the Saudi-led coalition-controlled city of Aden in southern Yemen no longer fear death as much as they suffer the looming specter of famine and daily humiliation as they struggle to provide a basic meal for their families, who often go to bed tormented by hunger.
The suffering of the population in Aden and the southern regions has worsened due to the continuous collapse of the Yemeni riyal’s value against foreign currencies. This deterioration has directly impacted living conditions, with the exchange rate reaching 2,731 riyals per US dollar and over 700 riyals per Saudi riyal in the final hours of Saturday.
The catastrophic economic situation is no longer just a term; it has become a bitter reality ravaging the people of Aden and the southern provinces. Poverty and famine have struck hard, to the point that many families are no longer able to provide bread for their children. All of this is happening amid the deafening silence of the coalition and its affiliated government, as well as members of the Presidential Leadership Council, who monopolize revenues from these regions as if the crisis does not concern them.
Economic hardship is not the only ordeal faced by these communities. Power outages lasting more than 16 hours a day have made life even more difficult, along with a severe shortage of domestic gas and the failure to pay employees’ salaries, which have become nothing more than hollow promises from the government, leaving citizens to face famine alone as part of a systematic starvation policy.
Despite the peaceful protests that took place in Aden and the southern regions, including Taiz, over the past months, the voices of the hungry have fallen on deaf ears. Instead, these movements were met with repression and arrests, including the arrest of dozens of activists, as well as attacks on female activists participating in the so-called “Women’s Revolution” in Aden, who took to the streets to demand the most basic rights for a decent life.
Aden and the areas controlled by the coalition have become a tragic example of worsening living and service crises. This is the plight of the region’s residents, who are suffering due to the failure of the coalition-affiliated government to take any economic measures to mitigate the collapse. The situation has been further compounded by the government’s printing of over 5.32 trillion Yemeni riyals without monetary backing since the transfer of Yemen’s central bank administration from Sanaa to Aden in late 2016 until 2021.
YPA