By Faisal Abu Bakr | 2024-03-24

ADEN -- Food shipments to Yemen have stalled as a result of the Houthis' Red Sea attacks, which have triggered an economic recession that is darkening the holy month of Ramadan, economists, merchants and citizens in Yemen said.

This year, consumer demand for food and other Ramadan-related items has dropped considerably, said Jalal Hassan, who manages a supermarket in Sanaa's al-Asbahi neighborhood.

"In the first five days of the month of Ramadan, sales and demand for products decreased by more than 50%," he told Al-Fassel. "This reduces the supermarket's revenue and consequently our ability to pay workers' salaries."

The supermarket is itself struggling to pay rent, he added.

Meanwhile, neighborhood elders in Sanaa are receiving multiple and repeated requests for assistance from the poor and from internally displaced persons (IDPs) who used to receive food baskets before this aid was suspended.

"The authorities in charge of the distribution of aid are asking neighborhood elders to submit lists of the most needy," Sanaa neighborhood elder Sultan Ahmed told Al-Fassel.

The suspension of aid "has compounded our suffering" during Ramadan, said Sanaa homemaker Samra Ali.

Ali told Al-Fassel she is presently focused on securing "basic sustenance for myself and my daughter, because things have gotten very difficult since the distribution of food baskets was suspended."

Ramadan "is the month of benevolence," she said, adding that while the less fortunate typically receive alms from wealthier compatriots in normal times, "the circumstances we are currently experiencing are complicated."

Public sector employee Salem al-Hadi said he bought only basic foods, at smaller quantities than usual, this Ramadan, "because we received only half a salary amid the continuous rise in prices and decline in the value of the Yemeni riyal."

Decrease in imports

Consumer demand for food has dropped by more than half, Sanaa wholesaler Ahmed Ali told Al-Fassel.

"Major suppliers provided smaller quantities of goods than wholesalers requested, amid the decrease in imports and delayed arrival of some basic materials as a result of the events in the Red Sea," he said.

Major suppliers are afraid of selling what they have in storage and running out of inventory, Ali said.

Meanwhile, some market traders are seeking to purchase larger quantities and monopolize business, with the aim of raising prices and controlling the market, he added.

The Houthis' attacks on international commercial cargo ships raised security concerns and forced a number of international shipping companies to alter their plans and maritime routes.

This has caused problems for Yemen, which imports 90% of its food, Studies and Economic Media Centre chairman Mustafa Nasr told Al-Fassel.

As a result, he said, the cost of transporting one container has increased "by more than 100%," from $3,500 to $7,000.

The most difficult Ramadan

"Ramadan 2024 is the most difficult for Yemenis since the Houthis' coup of September 2014," economist Fares al-Najjar told Al-Fassel.

He pointed to the "economic war" the Houthis are waging on goods coming from areas under the legitimate government's control, and their attacks in the Red Sea.

This has left Yemen facing "a complex problem that has negatively affected the delivery of humanitarian aid in a timely manner, and has prevented food and medicine from reaching the Yemeni people in a streamlined manner," he added.

Additionally, he said, it has precipitated "a high rate of inflation in the value of the currency, a decrease in production, and an increase in the level of unemployment."

The Red Sea attacks also delayed the delivery of humanitarian food aid to international and local organizations operating inside Yemen, he said, increasing the severity of food insecurity in Yemen, "which is at its worst."