ADEN— Ahmed Al-Yafei watched fishermen unloading
boxes of catfish from small boats docked in the bustling port of Aden in south
Yemen, keen to buy some for his hungry family — before realizing he could not
afford it.
اضافة اعلان
"The cost of a kilogram has reached 7,000–8,000 riyals
($8). That is the equivalent of red meat prices. It's a disaster for us!"
Yafei said in the buzzing fish market, where fishmongers stood at wooden tables
piled with kingfish, squid or red snapper from the day's catch.
"We used to buy fish at around 2,000 riyals, or up to
3,000 when it was very expensive. Now a kilogram of kingfish can be 10,000
riyals," he said.
The riyal trades at about 1,030 to the dollar on the black
market, the widely used rate, compared with an official rate of 580.
Yemenis in the south of a country shattered and divided by
six years of war blame spiraling food inflation in part on fish exports to
neighboring countries especially Saudi Arabia.
Large amounts of the catch from the rich fishing waters of
the Red and Arabian seas off south Yemen were exported before the war as well,
but the riyal was still strong enough for most local Yemenis to eat fish
regularly.
But the riyal's wartime plunge has made fish a prohibitive
luxury for those without hard currency. Moreover, most of Yemen's 29 million
people can now get by only with some form of humanitarian aid.
Local fishermen say fish prices have generally doubled due
to soaring fuel prices that have squeezed their margins, and many prefer to
send their catch abroad for hard currency.
Some impoverished Yemenis are fed up. Dozens in the southern
province of Abyan blocked seafood trucks on the main road to Saudi Arabia last
week, and threatened further protests if fish prices stay prohibitive.
"The wealth of our seas goes elsewhere while poor
Yemenis struggle to put food on the table," said protester Mohammad
Al-Mayssari.
As a possible solution, Hashem Rabei, head of Aden's
fishermen association, suggested the Aden-based government suspend fish exports
for three months. "That could be enough time to conduct a review that
would help cut prices," he said.
Yemen is split between an internationally recognized
government in the south, backed by a
Saudi-led military coalition, and the
Iran-aligned
Houthi movement that holds most of the north and the main Red Sea
port of Hodeida.
The Saudi-backed government based in Aden has blamed the
Houthis for conflict-induced inflation and accused them of squandering $4
billion of national bank reserves on the war. The Houthis say they are fighting
graft and foreign invaders.
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