Yemen’s Houthis impose $2m fees on telecom companies under pretext of combating COVID-19

By Middle East Monitor

Yemen’s Houthi movement imposed high fees on the telecommunications sector under the pretext of combating the coronavirus pandemic.

A document from the Ministry of Communications in the Sanaa-based government revealed that the group had imposed fees of half a billion Yemeni riyals on five national telecommunications companies under the pretext of supporting the efforts of combating the coronavirus.

According to the document, the Houthis demanded the General Organisation for Telecommunications, Tele Yemen, Yemen Mobile, Sabafon, and MTN Group to pay 100 million Yemeni riyals ($400,000) each to support the movement’s efforts to combat COVID-19.

Yemen’s national emergency committee said on Friday that a 60-year-old man in the southern oil-producing region of Hadramawt had become the country’s first coronavirus case.

Spokesman Ali Al-Walidi said the man was in a stable condition at a quarantine centre.

Authorities quickly sealed off the port where the man works and told other employees to self-isolate for two weeks, Reuters reported.

The neighbouring regions of Shabwa and Al Mahra sealed their borders with Hadhramout, where a 12-hour nightly curfew has been imposed.