Dozens of cargo truck drivers on Monday continued, for the 10th consecutive day, their peaceful protests in Yemen’s southern provinces of Aden and Abyan to demand an end to illegally imposed royalties at several security points along the road between the two provinces.
According to Yemen press agency (YPA), the drivers carry out vigils in front of the local authority building of the government backed by the Saudi-led coalition in the city of Zinjbar, the center of Abyan province, to express their rejection of those illegal levies imposed by the points under many names, including support for the implementation of service projects in the Abyan province.
Some drivers said that the amount of money they pay to the security points of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC)’s militias exceed 700,000 Yemeni riyals for each trip that the driver takes between Aden and Abyan, stressing that these amounts increase the suffering experienced by the simple citizen.
The protests come in light of the indifference of the pro-coalition government bodies in the two provinces of Aden and Abyan, which was confirmed by the arrest of a number of truck drivers a few days ago while they were carrying out a protest vigil.
