Sana'a - Saba:
In a clear attempt to destroy the remaining resources of the Yemeni people and hinder the state’s efforts to achieve economic recovery in the free provinces, the US-led aggression continues to target and destroy factories, as well as economic and service facilities. The latest attack targeted a cotton gin and an iron factory in Hodeida province.
Following the US-Saudi-Emirati aggression coalition’s systematic destruction of more than 22,404 economic facilities, 392 factories, 11,227 commercial establishments, and 407 poultry and livestock farms, the US-led aggression persists in its destructive approach, targeting the remaining assets, capabilities, factories, and economic facilities in the free provinces.
The targeting of factories exposes the falsity of the US aggression's alleged claims regarding the protection of navigation. It confirms that its primary goal is to destroy what remains of Yemen's infrastructure and continue to impoverish and starve the Yemeni people. This is a continuation of the aggression coalition's systematic destruction of production plants, airports, ports, power and communications stations, roads, bridges, and other vital economic and service facilities in the country over the past years.
The destruction of these vital facilities has exacerbated the economic and humanitarian conditions of the Yemeni people and inflicted heavy losses on the national economy. It poses a real threat to the country’s present and future, further hindering any potential for recovery or development.
The aggression against Yemen since 2015 has had catastrophic economic consequences, leading to the disruption of most productive sectors, a decline in per capita income, and the reduction of Yemen's infrastructure and service facilities to rubble.
Meanwhile, the US-led coalition of aggression countries continues to refuse to neutralize the economy, currency, and citizens' livelihoods. They exploit these factors to undermine the livelihoods of the Yemeni people as part of their systematic economic war. This is compounded by the blockade imposed on Yemeni ports, airports, and crossings, depriving the country of the revenues from its oil and gas resources.
Therefore, the US aggression's targeting of these two factories, along with others, represents an extension of the conspiracy aimed at Yemen's productive and vital sectors. It is part of an economic war waged by the US-led aggression forces, with the goal of exhausting the country economically and undermining all of its productive capabilities.
The direct and deliberate airstrikes on economic facilities and infrastructure have paralyzed many factories, including those that process locally available raw materials, which are a fundamental pillar of employment and development.
As a result of the intense bombing, factories have been extensively destroyed, completely halting production. This is part of a malicious and aggressive plan aimed at preventing any national shift toward local production, thus keeping the country dependent on imports to meet domestic consumption needs.
This targeting of factories also reveals the American enemy's animosity and its obstruction of all the steps and successes achieved in rehabilitating and operating production plants. It is an attack on the advanced steps taken by Yemen under the aspirations and directives of its wise revolutionary and political leadership to achieve economic recovery. This recovery is to be realized by revitalizing local industries, encouraging them to compete in the market, and achieving self-sufficiency.
These crimes are a repetition of the same scenario and destructive plan that economic facilities in the Gaza Strip were subjected to during the ongoing Zionist-American aggression against the region. This aggression inflicted direct losses on the Gaza Strip's economy through the deliberate destruction of commercial, industrial, and service-related economic facilities. By doing so, the American-Zionist enemy seeks to deepen the economic crisis, impoverish, and starve the people of both Yemen and Palestine.
Factories and economic facilities are civilian objects, and their targeting during wartime is prohibited by international laws and treaties. However, international human rights organizations, including those affiliated with the United Nations, have remained silent regarding the direct targeting of Yemen by this brutal aggression, which has affected all of its infrastructure, including those related to the provision of basic and essential services to citizens.
Due to American hegemony over international institutions and organizations, these bodies have shirked their responsibilities and ignored the crimes of the aggression, which have targeted factories and economic assets. They have also ignored the destruction of homes, markets, hospitals, schools, funeral and wedding halls, roads, transportation networks, and other facilities. This aggression has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Yemenis, most of whom are women and children. These crimes amount to war crimes and genocide, making the leaders and regimes of the aggressor states war criminals who must be prosecuted in international courts.
Reports by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on the impact of the war on Yemen predicted dire consequences for the country’s economy. The GDP has declined from approximately $35.7 billion in 2014 to $20.1 billion in 2019. Per capita GDP also fell from $3,770 to $1,950 during the same period, a level unseen in Yemen since before 1960.
These reports further summarized the economic impacts of the aggression and the blockade imposed on Yemen, estimating that economic output losses would reach approximately $180.8 billion by 2022, with losses increasing to $656.9 billion by 2030—26 times the size of the Yemeni economy in 2014.
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