Aden transport fares rise amid gas shortage, worsening service crisis
ADEN, Aug. 25 (YPA) – Aden city, south of Yemen, which is under Saudi control, witnessed a sudden increase in public transport fares on Tuesday due to a shortage of cooking gas, as various crises continue to affect the city.
Saudi Arabia, through the Special Committee, is waging a systematic campaign targeting basic services to pressure residents and exploit deteriorating living conditions to encourage the recruitment of their sons by pro-Saudi groups and deploy them in fighting against Sanaa forces.
Transport fares on the Al-Mualla–Sheikh Othman route increased by 200 Yemeni rials, reaching 700 rials, which equals $2.95, per trip, while fares on the Caltex–Inmaa route rose to 400 rials. The increases have added to the financial burden on families amid worsening economic and living conditions.
Bus and transport drivers attributed the fare increases to the shortage of gas and rising operating and maintenance costs, accusing the Saudi-backed authorities and government of taking no measures to ease residents’ hardships and leaving the public to bear the impact of rising prices and deteriorating services.
Meanwhile, local activists in Aden and Yemen’s southern and eastern provinces said the recurring disruptions to basic and essential services are part of a Saudi-supervised war on services and starvation.
They said the policy aims to place pressure on southern residents and push them to enlist their sons in pro-Saudi factions as a last resort, in exchange for payments of no more than 1,000 Saudi riyals.
The intensified recruitment campaigns carried out by pro-Saudi leaders across Aden, Abyan, Shabwa and other areas come after the Southern Transitional Council (STC) rejected deploying its affiliated factions and forces in confrontations with Sanaa forces on behalf of Riyadh, arguing that such a war does not serve the southern cause or reflect the aspirations of residents in Aden and elsewhere.
The campaigns are also taking place amid continued popular protests in Aden and other areas calling for an end to Saudi control.
Observers say Riyadh continues to use living and public-service conditions in Aden and other areas under its control as a tool to exert pressure on the southern population, advance external agendas and deepen divisions between Yemenis in the north and south, in order to maintain Saudi influence over southern Yemen, particularly as Saudi Arabia has continued to hold southern leaders in Riyadh since January.
AA