Yemen Feature: The Looming Humanitarian Crisis (Kasinof)

Laura Kasinof reports for The New York Times:

While Yemen’s political crisis stagnates — a popular uprising has stalled and a wounded president has not been seen publicly for weeks — its economic crisis has only grown worse.

The breakdown of public services, shortage of fuel and rising prices for food and water have made life exceedingly difficult for most Yemenis, and threaten to become a humanitarian crisis that could overshadow the political one.

“I sat at home for four days because I couldn’t get gasoline for my car,” said Ahmed al-Dubae, a taxi driver. “Those who have money, they can still get around. But those who don’t have money, their only choice is to go home and sleep.”

Residents of the capital, Sana, say they cannot remember when living conditions have been this bad, and their patience is running thin. Aside from the fuel crisis, Yemenis say that they are rationing water and food because the prices have soared. Darkness shrouds the capital at night because there is limited electricity and no diesel to fuel generators.

Mr. Dubae shook his head in disgust as he drove by a long line of cars in front of a gas station clogging busy Algeria Street in Sana’s upscale Hadda district. Other cars sputtered down the road because they were filled — at four times the normal price — with black-market gasoline, which is frequently mixed with water. Some gas stations here closed after deadly shootouts among those who had waited for more than 10 hours in line.

“If this condition continues in this way, there is going to be an uprising, but it’s not going to be the political uprising we have now,” said Abdel Rahman al-Ashwal, a university student who had to abandon his car at his family’s village and return the 125 miles to Sana by motorcycle because he could not find gasoline. “It’s not going to be organized. It’s going to be chaos.”

President Ali Abdullah Saleh had warned of such chaos after the protest movement started in late January calling for his ouster. Certainly, the political crisis contributed to the economic crisis. The currency has crashed, and many businesses have closed. Saudi Arabia, Yemen’s largest patron, has cut off payments to tribal leaders.

In March, antigovernment tribesmen blew up an oil pipeline and disabled the main oil production facility, forcing the government to import almost all of its fuel. The fuel shortage, in turn, created a water shortage because there has not been enough fuel to run the well pumps that keep this arid nation viable.

Yet there is widespread suspicion that the government is manipulating the crisis precisely to deflect attention from the political chaos.

Hafez al-Bukari, director of the Yemeni Polling Center, an independent political research organization, said many Yemenis believe the government wanted to increase the burden on the average Yemeni.

“Saleh’s family is holding up the transfer of power with the argument of waiting for Saleh to return, but if this situation continues for more weeks Yemen will witness humanitarian and security disaster,” Mr. Bukari said.

Musa Ahmed, a human rights activist, accused “the security apparatus” of fomenting the crisis. “They want to make a humanitarian crisis so that people ignore the political crisis,” he said. He said he no longer buys vegetables for his family because they are too expensive.

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