Yemen: Looting and Retreating
19th September 2016
The war in Yemen may appeared stalled, but it isn’t. The rebels are losing because they are surrounded and largely cut off from outside support. Aid for civilians gets through but most military supplies are kept out. The Saudis are not willing to take a lot of casualties to win the war quickly, especially when they can afford (financially) to use less newsworthy but more time consuming methods.
The final victory will come with the growing movement of rebel forces back to their ancient bastions in the northwest. To this end the rebels are making financial preparations to abandon the capital (Sanaa) and one of the less visible aspects of this is how they have apparently withdrawn over a billions dollars’ worth of Yemeni currency from the economy and moved the cash north. At the same time a lot of portable assets (computers, electronics of all sorts, some machinery) are being bought or “seized in lieu of revolutionary taxes” and also moved north.