The reason the world doesn't care is white people aren't visibly involved. No horse to back against.
- Sadly is because the economic interference isnt big to the world to care.
‘Hell for us’: Why Yemenis fear the US Houthi ‘terrorist’ designation
It could cripple remittances and financial transactions – and destroy an already battered economy without hurting the Houthis directly, say Yemenis.
Sanaa, Yemen — Abdu Yahia is no supporter of the Houthis. But the 37-year-old Sanaa resident has been praying for the past month that the armed Yemeni group stay off the United States’ list of designated “terrorist” outfits.
He receives aid from a humanitarian organisation in Sanaa, and fears that tag on the Houthis, who control large parts of Yemen, could stifle the flow of that assistance for a country whose economy has been devastated by a decade of war.
His prayers didn’t work.
On January 17, Washington gave the Houthis a one-month notice to stop their attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the Gulf of Aden or face the prospect of being put on the US “terror” list.
The Houthis rejected the ultimatum, insisting that they were not targeting civilians, that they were attacking only ships linked to Israel and that their campaign was aimed at pressuring Israel to stop its devastating war on Gaza, in which nearly 30,000 people have been killed.
So on February 16, the US
relisted the Houthis as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT). The designation enables the US Treasury Department to disrupt financial flows between Yemen and any country in the international financial system, if it believes those funds could help the Houthis.
But it’s not the Houthis who will face the
worst of the effects of the designation, said Yahia.
“When the Houthis are called rebels or militants, that is fine. But when they are called a ‘terrorist’ organisation, it is grave. We civilians cannot escape the consequences as long as we live in Houthi-controlled areas,” he said.
Aggravating economic woes
Mohammed Ali, a 25-year-old university graduate in Sanaa, says the US designation of the Houthis will not rob the group of its military power, but it will add to the country’s
economic woes and affect people’s livelihoods.
Ali studied public relations and hopes to get a job relevant to his major. But he knows his prospects, already weak, have become almost negligible with the US labelling the Houthis a “terror” group. The economy will take a further hit.
“The private sector will be more hesitant to open more investments in Houthi-controlled areas, and international humanitarian organisations may limit their operations and reduce their local staff in Yemen,” he said. “More restrictions on money transfers to Yemen will be introduced. This will hurt Yemenis who depend on financial support from friends or relatives in other countries.”
Since the start of the Yemen war in 2015, inward remittances have become an increasingly central part of the country’s economy: In 2023, they are expected to have amounted to
18 percent of Yemen’s gross domestic product (GDP), among the highest proportions in the world.
While Washington has made some exemptions to mitigate the impact of the Houthi designation as a “terror” group, the aid operations director for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Edem Wosornu, said late last week that the Yemeni economy would not be immune from the consequences of the move.
She told the UN Security Council, “We fear there may be an effect on the economy, including commercial imports of essential items on which the people of Yemen depend more than ever.”
Ali, the Sanaa resident, also worries that the restrictions could lead to a rise in prices of imported commodities. “
When any military tensions intensify, or the flow of ships to Yemen is disrupted, we feel the pain the moment the price of commodities rises,” Ali said.
Full read:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/...enis-fear-the-us-houthi-terrorist-designation