Houthis slammed after abducting Yemeni oil tycoon on Sanaa street

The Iran-backed Houthis were on Wednesday slammed for abducting a Yemeni oil magnate from a Sanaa street and placing him in detention.

Yemeni government officials, journalists, and family members condemned the kidnapping of Abdullah Ahmed Al-Hutheily, the owner of a major oil transportation, logistics, and oil-related services company.

He was taken while driving his car in the western Yemen city earlier this month and is the latest person to be targeted as part of the militia’s crackdown on Yemeni businesspeople who do not comply with their repressive economic rules.

Al-Hutheily was held for allegedly transporting oil from the southern province of Shabwa to the city of Aden, both of which are under the control of the Yemeni government.

Muammar Al-Eryani, Yemen’s minister of information, accused the Houthis of increasingly persecuting entrepreneurs in areas under their control to coerce them out of the country so that the group’s followers could steal their businesses.

In a tweet, he said: “It confirms that the militia is executing its strategy to demolish the private sector and suffocate businesses in order to force them out of the country in favor of its commercial companies and investors.”

The minister added that the Houthis had also surrounded and shut down Sanaa’s Shamlan Mineral Water Factory after bosses refused to cooperate with the militia.

Al-Masdar Online, a Yemeni news outlet, reported that the Houthis abducted Al-Hutheily after his company, which operates oil fields in Shabwa province, moved crude oil from Shabwa to an electricity plant in Aden, in violation of previous Houthi warnings to local and international firms not to do business with the Yemeni government.

They abducted the man and also threatened to attack oil tankers transporting crude oil to Aden, prompting Austria’s OMV oil company, which manages the oil fields, to halt operations and send staff home.

The Sanaa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, together with a group of oil-station owners, initially condemned Al-Hutheily’s arrest and demanded his release.

However, the two bodies later withdrew their comments and in a Houthi broadcast apologized for criticizing the Houthi authorities, maintaining that the arrest was lawful, and expressing their support for the Houthi judicial authorities that ordered the businessman to be held.

Outraged friends and family of Al-Hutheily took to social media calling for him to be freed.

Since October, the Houthis have launched drone and missile attacks on oil facilities in the government-controlled provinces of Shabwa and Hadramout in a bid to force the Yemeni government into paying public workers in regions under their control and sharing oil profits with them.

The strikes have halted oil exports, the country’s main source of revenue, prompting the government to declare it may be unable to pay public workers if the Houthi attacks do not cease.

Ali Al-Fakih, editor of Al-Masdar Online, told Arab News that after successfully preventing the country’s oil exports from accessing the international market, the Houthis switched their attention to internal fuel ship transportation.

He said: “Their goal is to suffocate the government with a derivatives and liquidity crisis.”

Al-Fakih noted that Al-Hutheily’s kidnapping was part of a series of Houthi tactics against businesses and individuals who were not loyal or refused to finance the movement.

“This is in the framework of Houthi control over the movement of the private sector,” he added.