Yemen officials say UAE barring ships with government cash

[Duufaan]

Yemen officials say UAE barring ships with government cash

The United Arab Emirates is barring ships carrying some 170 billion Yemeni rials ($680 million) from entering the southern port of Aden, Yemeni officials said Wednesday.

They told The Associated Press the money is meant for the salaries of government employees who haven't been paid for over a year. The officials, including one from the Yemeni central bank, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with reporters.

There was no immediate comment from the UAE. 

Like most other southern ports, Aden is under the control of the UAE, a key partner in the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Shiite Houthi rebels, who control most of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa.

The coalition is fighting on the side of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's government, but the UAE has long been at odds with Hadi, with each side running its own armed groups in a power struggle across southern Yemen.

The officials said the UAE had in the past prevented aircraft carrying cash from landing at Aden's airport.

The UAE ban came nearly a year after Hadi ordered the relocation of the Central Bank to Aden, the government's temporary seat. Since then, his rivals have accused him of stashing cash in private banks and in the presidential palace, allegations denied by the government.

The unpaid salaries have crippled Yemen's public sector amid three years of grinding war. Malnutrition, cholera, and other diseases have killed thousands of civilians, and millions have come to depend on humanitarian assistance for survival.

 

[Duufaan]

Their present in Somali will not bring any good. They should be asked to leave.

[galbeedi]

The UAE had revived the Southern Yemen sepretists and having arming them against the Hadi government. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Yemeni separatists backed by UAE seize area around presidential palace

Saudi troops who have been guarding the palace for months stopped the separatists at the gate, preventing them from entering.

 

A fighter from the separatist Southern Transitional Council walks with smoke billowing in the background in the government's de facto capital Aden, as they move closer to taking full control of the southern city on Tuesday.  (SALEH AL-OBEIDI / AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

By AHMED AL-HAJThe Associated Press

Tues., Jan. 30, 2018

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SANAA, YEMEN—Yemeni separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates seized the area around the presidential palace in the southern city of Aden on Tuesday after fierce battles with forces loyal to the internationally-backed government, security officials said.

A Saudi-led coalition that includes the UAE has been battling rebels in northern Yemen for nearly three years on behalf of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s government. But despite having a common enemy, the UAE and Hadi have been locked in a long-running power struggle, which boiled over on Sunday as clashes erupted across the government’s seat of power.

Elsewhere in Yemen, Al Qaeda militants attacked a checkpoint in the southern Shabwa province, killing at least 12 soldiers in an area where Yemeni troops had claimed victory against the extremist group. The militants claimed the attack in a statement circulated on social media, saying it was in retaliation for abuses by U.S. and UAE-backed forces.

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The security officials said fighters loyal to the so-called Southern Transitional Council fought all way to the gates of the palace in central Aden, forcing Hadi’s troops to abandon their positions. The officials said Hadi’s prime minister and several Cabinet members would soon leave Yemen for Riyadh, where Hadi is already based, but by late Tuesday it was not yet clear if they had done so.

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Saudi troops who have been guarding the palace for months stopped the separatists at the gate, preventing them from entering. A senior government official told The Associated Press that Prime Minister Ahmed Obaid Bin Daghar and several ministers remain inside. The official declined to say whether the prime minister was to leave Aden. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity under regulations.

In the northern district of Dar Saad, witnesses said coalition jets bombed a military camp of Hadi’s forces before separatists took control of it. Brig. Gen. Mahran al-Qubati told the AP that his forces respected a ceasefire announced by the coalition earlier in the day but the separatists used the truce to attack his base using Emirati armoured vehicles.

Col. Turki al-Malki, the coalition spokesman, declined to comment on the bombing. “I am not able to discuss the details of an ongoing operation,” he told the AP.

The fighting had subsided by midday, when checkpoints run by both sides could be seen across the city.

The fighting in Aden erupted on Sunday, when a deadline issued by the separatists for the government to resign expired. Hadi, who has been in Saudi Arabia for most of the war, has described the separatists’ action as a “coup.” The violence has killed at least 36 people and wounded 185 since Sunday, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

It has also exposed deep divisions within the Saudi-led alliance against the Iran-backed rebels, known as Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa. The war has been locked in a bloody stalemate for the last three years, with more than 10,000 people killed and some 2 million displaced by the fighting.

The UAE has viewed Hadi with suspicion because of his alliance with the Yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, a Pan-Arab political movement that the Emirates and some other Arab states view as a terrorist organization. Over the past year, the UAE has trained and armed its own forces in Yemen, including the separatists, in a direct challenge to Hadi. Saudi Arabia has thus far avoided taking sides.

The U.S. State Department has expressed concern and called on all parties to “refrain from escalation and further bloodshed.” Washington backs the Saudi-led coalition.

“We also call for dialogue among all parties in Aden to reach a political solution,” the statement said. “The Yemeni people are already facing a dire humanitarian crisis. Additional divisions and violence within Yemen will only increase their suffering.”

In the attack in Shabwa, the militants hit a checkpoint guarded by the so-called Shabwa Elite Force, which has also been trained by the UAE, near the southern city of Ataq, the provincial capital.

Tribesmen in the area say the attack started with a mortar round fired at the checkpoint, followed by heavy gunfire.

Tribesman Youssef al-Khalifi, who lives nearby, said he helped carry the bodies of the wounded to a hospital but that only one survived. Al-Khalifi said the attackers had destroyed a building next to the checkpoint where some of the guards were sleeping and that he helped retrieve some of the bodies from under the rubble.

The UAE-trained Shabwa force was deployed to the region last year and later declared victory over al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, which had used Shabwa as a safe haven.

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[Old_Observer]

Two peoples who have yet to find leadership that will change location from curse to blessing, from problem to opportunity are the Yemeni and the Somali.

Sometimes it makes one feel like the Egyptians might have chosen the best. Be obedient and live under anyone powerful. Speak as if you are a lion, but everyone knows you are somebody's pet.

This time the Somali and Yemeni have no choice but to work in pieces and regions and focus on survival issues of food production, culture and language preservation and use what can be achieved in terms of modern development.

If some accident of nature or man made like draught happens these two peoples have no capacity to withstand. Fighting 200 years for ones independence and identity is extremely high cost. No food production. America and Canada are strong not with Nuclear technlogy, but food production. If you cannot feed yourself, if you cannot educate yourself your children, if you cannot help yourself with common desease or maladies, all bravery in wars will come to naught.

 

 

[Dahireeto]

UAE is the new Isreal. Small, methodical, rich, powerful militarily and willing to take risks. 

[Old_Observer]

57 minutes ago, Dahireeto said:

UAE is the new Isreal. Small, methodical, rich, powerful militarily and willing to take risks. 

Indeed.

Can you imagine Somalia Ethiopia surviving the blockade of Qatar for a week? We would all have to sell even homes we live in let alone ports just to survive.

UAE will not take any measures against Sudan, since their food production depends there. Kwait is the same. The Saudi are same for Ethiopia.

Somalia should try this method of making relationships more interdependent. Turkey may have the will, but no money.