Hodeidah fishermen not spared Houthi oppression
▶ A prosperous future for Yemenis needs aid long after Hodeidah is returned to its people
In Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah, residents are known for their humbleness and simplicity. Politics is not something in which they generally engage and yet they have paid the highest price at the hands of the Houthi rebels.
Omar Duoballa, director of the fish landing centre in Al Khokha, said many fishermen have been killed in Hodeidah by the Iran-backed group since 2014. He said rebels and fishermen would constantly argue.
“At least 20 fishermen, most of whom live in either Al Khokha or Al Faza were killed by the Houthis since the war erupted,” he told The National.
“As the rebels took over areas to the south of Hodeidah, they began harassing the fishermen to ask them to pay illegal taxes or to support the war by smuggling in weapons for them. When the fishermen refused the requests, they became targets.”
Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for most residents in Hodeidah, whose port the Houthi rebels have been using to smuggle weapons provided by Iran.
In 2015, Mr Duoballa said, the Houthis asked a group of seven fishermen in Al Khokha to transport goods for them to Al Faza. “Our colleagues refused the Houthi request, and an hour later, the militia launched a mortar shell at them while they were fishing and killed them,” he said.
Saeed Al Hadi, 60, a fisherman from Al Kataba, said that the Houthi rebels have made the lives of fishermen full of “suffering and pain”.
“Many fishermen were killed in cold blood. They were either shot by the Houthis or killed by sea mines planted by the rebels,” he told The National.
“Others lost all their equipment and fled the coasts of Hodeidah to Aden and Mukalla in the southern provinces.”
Mr Al Hadi was gearing up to start fishing again after Yemeni government forces – backed by the Arab Coalition – liberated from the Houthis the southern areas of Hodeidah.
“The Houthis were forced to leave the area after being defeated, but they left behind memories of horrible tragedies,” he said. “They killed more than 20 fishermen, most of them fathers, and destroyed more than 40 boats. They also destroyed the market where we used to exhibit our daily catch.”
Omar Homadi, the owner of a boat manufacturing company in Al Khokha, recently re-opened his factory after the Houthis destroyed it and the equipment inside. “I spent millions of rials setting up my business, and it was turned into rubble in minutes,” he said. “The important thing now is that we’re looking to the future and the rebels have left. Their presence was a nightmare.”
The coast of Al Khokha was crowded this week as dozens of fishermen were busy repairing their equipment to resume their jobs. Meanwhile, a team of builders were constructing a new fish landing centre, which is funded by the Emirates Red Crescent.
“The ERC has gone above and beyond to support the fishermen in Al Khokha and has, other than funding the new centre, provided several fishermen with new boats,” Mr Duoballa said.
Yemeni President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi has rejected an offer that would have placed the Red Sea port of Hodeidah under UN supervision and allowed the Iran-backed Houthi rebels to remain there, according to reports.
Martin Griffiths, the United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen, met Mr Hadi yesterday as he scrambled to avert an all-out assault on the city and its port, the country’s second-largest.
In his first trip to the southern city of Aden, Mr Griffiths reportedly presented an offer to the Yemeni leader from the Houthi leadership to hand the port over to UN control.
The offer would have allowed the rebel group to retain a physical presence at the port. The UN has not confirmed the offer.
But the Yemeni leader “completely rejected” the premise of an armed Houthi presence remaining in the port, according to Sky News Arabia.
Echoing a demand repeatedly made by the Arab Coalition, the Yemeni leader “insisted on the need for the Houthis to withdraw completely and without conditions from Hodeidah, or face a military solution” a Yemeni government source told AFP.
A statement released by the Yemeni Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the meeting stressed that “the management and security of the port of Hodeidah cannot be realised without securing the city itself”.
Mr Griffiths said he appreciated Mr Hadi’s “constant efforts towards peace”. He highlighted upcoming meetings regarding the peace process to be held in Muscat and Sanaa.
The Houthis have controlled the western city of Hodeidah, and its port, since 2014, when they drove the Hadi government out of the capital and seized large areas of northern Yemen. The port is the entry point for about 70 per cent of Yemen’s food.
On June 13, the UAE and its allies, including Saudi Arabia, launched a huge military operation – dubbed Golden Victory – to drive the rebels out of the Hodeidah port.
A coalition of nine Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE intervened in the civil war in 2015 at the request of Mr Hadi’s internationally recognised government.
UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Anwar Gargash said that the Houthis had been given plenty of opportunities to negotiate, but had continued to threaten civilians in Hodeidah.
“Houthis not treated like any other terrorist militia and have dialogue with UN and opportunity to negotiate political process. Yet in threatening civilians behave like any other terrorist organisation. International community must hold them to account,” he tweeted.
Dr Gargash said that Coalition-backed forces were attempting to ready the airport to receive humanitarian aid.
“We want #Hodeida airport secure so we can begin humanitarian airlifts of food and medicine; Houthi snipers and machine guns, shooting from civilian areas, hold us back. Houthis planting sea mines, endangering aid delivery,” he said on Twitter.
Last week Mr Griffiths, who assumed the role of UN envoy to Yemen only in March, recently visited Sanaa where he held talks with the Houthi leadership. On Tuesday, he met with EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
Aid organisations have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe if the flow of goods through the port is blocked. Coalition officials insist that recapturing the port will force the rebels to the negotiating table.
UN envoy’s alleged offer to Hadi would have allowed the rebel group to retain a physical presence at the port, but the world body has not confirmed the offer
Hunger and disease have been rife in Yemen ever since the Houthis seized power in 2015. The situation worsened when the rebels spread their reign of terror to the port city of Hodeidah and usurped vital supplies intended for the starving masses. Driving the Houthis from Hodeidah is vital to ending the suffering of the Yemenis – and it is this thinking that has governed the actions of the Saudi-led Arab coalition that includes the UAE, which took military steps this month to liberate the port city after all attempts at diplomacy failed.
“We are here for the long run,” Reem Al Hashimy, the UAE’s Minister of State for International Co-operation, assured Yemenis, speaking in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. The UAE has provided aid amounting to $4 billion to Yemen since 2015. And over the past year, the Emirates Red Crescent has delivered 35,000 tonnes of food – enough to feed two million people for a month – as well as other essential supplies. Such giving will continue long after the Houthis are defeated, reflecting the UAE’s commitment to guaranteeing Yemen’s long-term security.
No sooner had the campaign begun to drive the Houthis out of Hodeidah than the ERC dispatched 10 vessels laden with 13,500 tonnes of food, accompanied by planes carrying more than 10,000 food parcels, on the instructions of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Humanitarianism is not simply an aspect of this campaign: it is the very objective of the mission.
But as the Houthis are forced out and diplomacy supplants military operations, a long-term strategy supported by a sustainable aid package will be required. Ms Al Hashimy left no room for doubt about what the UAE intends to do.
“We are committed to creating a stable environment to help Yemeni people thrive and reach their potential in terms of employment and healthcare,” she said. “There is so much that they are capable of, that they deserve and have been robbed of.”
Actualising this vision of a stable and prosperous future for Yemenis will require ending Houthi misrule. The battle for Hodeidah is a battle for the future of Yemen – it will end only when those responsible for Yemen’s misery have withdrawn from the port that is the nation’s lifeline.