Al-Houthi arrests 7 drivers after bus owners' strike
English - Monday 21 February 2022 الساعة 09:17 am
Sana'a, NewsYemen, private:
The Houthi militia, the Iranian arm in Yemen, arrested a number of bus drivers in Sana’a, due to a strike carried out by bus drivers against the backdrop of new fees imposed by the Houthi militia on bus drivers, as well as the crisis of oil and gas derivatives taking place in Sana’a and militia-controlled areas.
Bus drivers told NewsYemen that the Houthi militia had arrested seven bus drivers in Sanaa after the bus drivers carried out a demonstration in Bab Al-Yaman and Khawlan Street and refused to work in protest against the new royalty imposed on them that preceded the crisis of oil and gas derivatives facing the drivers and residents of Sanaa and militia control areas.
Mohammed, a gas and oil passenger bus driver, told NewsYemen that the drivers' strike came after the militias imposed a sum of six thousand riyals on each weekly taxi delivered to the Transportation Office in Sanaa under the name of improvement fees, in addition to facing the problem of providing gasoline or gas. for their buses, especially in light of the high prices of oil derivatives, especially gasoline, and the official price of it at the stations of the oil company reaching 9900 riyals, and on the black market it reached 22,000 riyals, as well as the absence of gas and its price on the black market reached 15,000 riyals.
He added: We carried out a strike for more than five hundred drivers of gas and petrol buses, which angered the militias and their security services, which sent dozens of crews and surrounded the demonstrators with a security fence, while some of their officials threatened the drivers before sending two people from the Sana'a Transport Office to negotiate with The demonstrators, who expressed their rejection of the new royalty, especially in light of the crisis of oil and gas derivatives, which led to an agreement between the Transportation Office and the drivers that the former take over the responsibility of providing petrol filling cards for drivers to stations designated for them in advance, and that the filling period is only five days and not a week as It is the norm for private cars, in return for raising the strike.
Muhammad continued: But we were surprised that security officials affiliated with the militias arrested seven of the drivers and took them to an unknown location on the pretext that they were the ones who led the process of inciting the demonstration, as the seven drivers had previously received threats from Houthi security leaders while they were in charge of calling for the strike.
Muhammad held the Houthi militia responsible for maintaining the security, safety and life of the seven detainees, and any torture they might be exposed to, especially since the strike was ended after an agreement with the Transportation Office, stressing that if the militias refused to release them, the bus drivers would carry out a new strike.
