Houthis Forcefully Collect Money from Shops to Celebrate Prophet's Birthday
The Ansar Allah (Houthi) group began imposing mandatory financial contributions on shops, clinics, restaurants, and pharmacies in areas under their control to prepare for the Prophet's Birthday, local sources said. The amounts of money collected from every pharmacy range from 50,000 to 10,000 Yemeni riyal from the clinics and pharmacies, the sources said. Houthis organize the Prophet's Birthday celebrations every year, and they use this occasion to deepen their ideological agenda. The Prophet's Birthday celebration will happen on September 26.
MASAM Project announced that it had removed thousands of explosives and landmines from different Yemeni provinces during August. The Project removed 5110 landmines, 4594 unexploded ammunition, and 456 anti-tank mines. It said it cleared 49.57 million square meters of Yemeni land since its launch in June 2018. In July this year, the Project destroyed 1149 landmines, unexploded ammunition, and explosive devices. Yemen slid into a civil war in 2015, pitting the Houthi group against the UN-recognized government of Yemen.
The head of the Presidential Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, discussed on Wednesday efforts to revive peace and end the war in Yemen with French Ambassador Jean-Marie Safa. The meeting highlighted updates on the Saudi-led peace efforts and government reforms in financial, economic, and service areas. Al-Alimi praised the French leadership's support for the Yemeni people and their political aspirations towards regaining state institutions, security, stability, and peace.
On Wednesday, the Governor of the Central Bank of Yemen, Ahmed Ghalib, discussed in Aden, with the head of the European Union delegation to Yemen, Gabriel Gabriel Munuera Viñals', the reform package being implemented by the Central Bank in the country. The state-run Saba News Agency reported that the two sides discussed progress in implementing programs and plans related to upgrading the functions of the banking sector in Yemen.Ghalib pointed to the economic challenges in the country, especially in light of the cessation of oil and gas exports, the decline of resources, the dwindling of foreign aid, and its negative impact on citizens' humanitarian and service conditions.
Entire communities were swept out to sea in the North African country, with the city of Derna hit hardest. The flood death toll in the city of Derna has risen to more than 5,100, said a local health official in eastern Libya. Over 1,500 corpses were collected, and half of them had been buried as of Tuesday evening, the health minister for eastern Libya said. The floods damaged or destroyed many access roads to the coastal city of some 89,000. At least 10,000 people are still missing.
