Yemen: Houthis Enriched Themselves Plundering Oil, Taxes Revenues

By Saeed Al-Batati

Houthi leaders’ families have amassed vast fortunes by diverting billions of Yemeni riyals from oil, taxes, and other levies into their own wallets and also profiting from the creation of oil black markets, the UN Panel of Experts has said. 

This finding by UN experts has validated Yemeni activists’ and authorities’ long-held suspicions that militia members are using the conflict to enrich themselves.

Covering the period from early December 2021 to Nov. 30, 2022, the UN experts stated in their annual report to the UN Security Council that from the start of the UN-brokered truce on April 2 to Nov. 30, 69 fuel ships delivered 1,810,498 tons of oil derivatives to the Houthi-controlled Hodeidah port, generating 271.935 billion Yemeni rials (approximately $271 million) for the Houthis.

Instead of utilizing the earnings to pay public workers in regions under their control, as the UN-brokered Stockholm Agreement requires, the Houthis used the money to line their own pockets and finance military activities.

“Under the Stockholm Agreement, the Houthis were to collect customs duties on the import of oil through the port of Hodeidah on the condition that they would pay public service salaries. However, the panel was informed that no salaries had been paid at the time of writing,” the panel said.

In addition to other sources of revenue such as taxes on mobile and landline services, oil, banks, hospitals, pharmacies, and zakat, which is estimated at 45 billion Yemeni riyals per year, the Houthis have imposed a new levy known as a khums (one-fifth) tax on mineral, water, and fishing industries and other economic activities, with all proceeds going to Houthi families and other allied leaders, the 194-page report said.

“Real estate is another sector that generates significant revenues for the Houthis, who forcibly confiscated large swathes of land and buildings during the reporting period. The Houthis are also using various telecommunications companies to send millions of messages soliciting support and financial contributions for their war efforts,” it added.

The UN experts discovered that the Houthis engaged in drug smuggling and trade in order to fund their military activities, and the Saudi authorities told them that they had intercepted several shipments of narcotic substances originating from the Houthis in Yemen.

“During its visit to Riyadh, the panel was informed of several seizures by the Saudi authorities, especially at Wadi’ah, Khadra’, Ulab, Tuwal and Jazan Port. The Saudi authorities stated that the trafficking and smuggling of the consignments were being aided and abetted by the Houthis to generate funds for their war activities.” 

UN experts have identified the Iran-backed Houthis as the primary abusers of human rights in Yemen due to their indiscriminate attacks on civilian gatherings and infrastructure, arbitrary abductions, torture, and forced disappearances.

For a second year in a row, UN experts have accused the Houthis of breaking their pledge to the UN to stop recruiting children into their military, adding that Houthi community services coerced children, mostly those aged 13 to 17, to join their summer camps and recruitment and training facilities through financial inducements or intimidation.

“The Houthis continued their campaign of indoctrinating children and of recruiting and using them in their forces, including as combatants, contrary to their legal obligations and the action plan signed with the UN in April 2022 to prevent and end recruitment and other grave violations against children.”

The UN found evidence that Iran continued to ship weapons, including ballistic missile components, to the Houthis after examining seized weapons shipments on land or at sea in Yemen.

UN experts also identified Mohammed Halas Mohammed Bishara as the leader of the Houthi maritime smuggling organization. 

They were granted access to components of Quds ballistic missiles and drones captured by the UK navy in the Gulf of Oman in January 2023 aboard two stateless vessels moving from Iranian beaches into Oman. 

“The seizure of Quds components by the British Royal Navy supports the panel’s assessment that the missiles continue to be smuggled in parts from abroad and that final assembly takes place in Houthi-controlled areas,” said the report. 

Yemeni authorities also permitted UN experts to inspect a shipment of 52 launch containers containing 9M133 Kornet anti-tank guided missiles that had been concealed inside four huge power generators and confiscated at the country’s Shahn border crossing with Oman. 

“The panel maintains its long-held position that some of the seized weapons — such as the anti-tank guided missiles seized on the Omani border — have technical characteristics and markings consistent with those manufactured in Iran,” the report revealed.