Arms dealers cut off Sana’a gas supplies

A group led by some members of the Parliament, the Shora Council, and a Marib sheikh have shut down a gas trucking route in Marib province when authorities exposed an illegal shipment of weapons, said official sources in the Marib Governorate. The weapons were intended to be imported on a Chinese cargo ship using falsified military documentation.

The weapons dealers, Abdullah bin Muili, a member of Parliament, and Hadi Muthana, who is supported by Hamad Bin Jalal (a Shora Council member), along with Mohammed al-Amir, a Marib sheikh, have blocked the Safir-Sana’a road since last Saturday, in order to block cooking gas shipments, and consequently have created a gas crisis throughout the country.

By doing this, the group is hoping to pressure the government into compromising its decision to ban the weapons shipment, which was imported with allegedly counterfeit documents made to imitate documents from the Yemeni Ministry of Defense.

Nevertheless, Yemeni authorities have tightened their measures to prevent the entry of the Chinese weapons into the country. Official authorities have reported that the cargo ship was turned away from Yemeni territorial waters and is now anchored at an African port. However, in a contradicting report, members of parliament have stated that the ship is anchored in the port of Hodeidah. On it Monday session, the Parliament formed a parliamentarian committee to further investigate the arms ship case.

A Yemeni representative of the Chinese company that manufactured the weapons has asked the Ministry of Defense to expedite the unloading of the ship in Hodeidah. The agent specified that the arms are Chinese and not Russian, and accused the Deputy Defense Minister of refusing to unload the shipment because of the delay in delivery. He stressed that the weapons plant caused the delay, that he had no control over the delay, and therefore should not be held responsible for it.

He explained that the cargo ship has been anchored in Hodeidah for 18 days and has cost him heavy losses as a result, but has declined to disclose why the Ministry of Defense has broken its contract with the company.

In related issues concerning the movement of weapons with Yemen, security sources have reasserted their commitment to capture suspected arms dealers in the Sana’a and Thamar governorates. Meanwhile security authorities near Sa’adah have tightened their security on roads leading to the region in order to prevent supplies and weapons from reaching the rebels.

The Ministry of Interior has said that it will not allow the reappearance of the death trade or the reopening of arms markets after they have been unequivocally shutdown. The security forces have continued their efforts, catching three weapons dealers red-handed on October 8th in Bagim, in the Sa’adah Directorate, while they were supplying the terrorists with weapons, ammunition, and explosives.

A senior security official said on October 19th that they have been stopping about 10-20 trucks everyday loaded with food or grass that is used to hide gas and weapons being smuggled to the terrorist elements.
 

Earlier, on October 6th, a military patrol caught five trucks carrying large amounts of explosives, fuel, and gas cylinders on their way to the rebel elements in Sa’adah. A source said that the trucks, which were stopped near Sana’a, were loaded with 350 bags of gunpowder and large amounts of medicine and drugs (narcotic pills) that were hidden under loads of fruits and vegetables.
 

The Ministry of the Interior has published a list of the most important arms dealers in Yemen, which includes: Fares Manna, Abdullah bin Muili, Garman Mohammed Garman, Ahmed Awad Abu Miskah, Hussein Ahmed Al-Huthili, Abdullah Mubarak al-Zaghir and Ali Dhaifalla al-Sawadi.

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