AL-MUKALLA: The Houthis have deployed hundreds of fighters and military equipment in Yemen’s southern province of Taiz, the Yemeni army said on Wednesday.
It came as the country’s internationally recognized government repeated an appeal to the international community for financial assistance to stabilize the country’s declining currency.
Abdul Basit Al-Baher, a military official in Taiz, told Arab News that the Houthis deployed fighters equipped with various types of weapons, including drones, tanks, artillery and ballistic missiles, in areas under their control in the north, northeast and west of the province, primarily outside the besieged city of Taiz and areas near government-controlled towns on the Red Sea coast, such as Mocha.
He said he believes the Houthis are preparing to launch an offensive in these areas and have installed ballistic missile systems in underground facilities along the Auman and Al-Ula mountains.
“The goal of the Houthis’ mobilization of forces and weapons may not be Taiz but they will be participating in the battle of Iran, heading to Bab Al-Mandab and Mocha and possibly deploying weapons at the nearest point to the sea to threaten international navigation,” Al-Baher added.
Government troops repelled seven Houthi attacks on their positions in the past three days, he revealed.
The Houthis said they were staging military drills and training exercises, and deploying forces and military equipment in areas under their control as part of their campaign to “fight off Israel and the US.”
Yemeni government officials and critics of the militia have repeatedly accused the Houthis of exploiting the outrage in Yemen over the deaths of thousands of Palestinians as a result of Israel’s war in Gaza to recruit more fighters, deploy forces and weapons in contested areas, and divert attention from the growing public resentment over the Houthi control of parts of the country and their failure to pay salaries to public-sector workers.
Rashad Al-Alimi, chairperson of the nation’s Presidential Leadership Council, once again asked the international community to help his government stabilize Yemen’s currency after the riyal hit a new low against the dollar.
During a meeting in Riyadh on Wednesday with Abda Sharif, the British ambassador to Yemen, Al-Alimi said he is seeking international financial assistance for his government’s plan to rescue the economy and halt the slide of the currency, the official state news agency reported.
In the past two weeks, the riyal has fallen to an all-time low of 2,050 against the dollar in government-controlled areas. It was trading at about 215 to the dollar in 2014 when the war broke out and the Houthis took control of the capital, Sanaa.
The depreciation of the currency has increased the costs of food, fuel and transportation, sparking angry protests. Public employees have said that their salaries are paid weeks late and have lost much of their value because of the high inflation.
The Yemeni government has said it has lost $6 billion in revenue since late 2022, when the Houthis attacked oil terminals in the provinces of Hadramout and Shabwa, halting oil exports.
