Popular Protests in Southern Yemen: A Result of the Policies of Rulers Who Persist in Oppressing the People
(Translated)
Al-Rayah Newspaper - Issue 604 - 17/06/2026
By: Ustadh Abu Bakr al-Jabali – Wilayah Yemen

The tragic events in Yemen are worsening across all aspects of life, but the lack of basic services is having a direct and severe impact on people’s daily lives and livelihoods. Due to power outages, many residents of Aden have been forced to seek shelter on sidewalks and in open streets to escape the sweltering summer heat. For many families, their homes have become unbearably hot, and the sight of people sleeping on the streets in the districts of Al-Mualla, Sirah, and Crater has become commonplace, reflecting the escalating daily suffering endured by the population.

Amidst this reality, on the evening of 10 June 2026, protesters blocked the road leading to the Ma'ashiq Palace in Aden, demonstrating against the continuous power cuts and the deteriorating services. Dozens of people staged a protest, blocking the road and burning tires to express their anger at the unprecedented levels of power outages coinciding with the intense heat wave. The situation is similar in other areas under the control of the official government.

The Houthi-controlled areas are also suffering from dire conditions due to their failure to fulfill any obligations towards these areas. They claim to be an authority not obligated to provide services under the pretext of the ongoing aggression. Most people rely on privately owned generators for electricity, which are charged exorbitant rates and have become a source of funding for the rulers at the expense of the people’s suffering.

The suffering of the people of Yemen is universal, regardless of who controls them, and their deprivation of rights is the same, despite the various slogans and banners used.

The collapse of services, rampant disease, and abject poverty across Yemen, the inability of the electricity sector to provide even the most basic necessities during the scorching summer, and the privatization of essential services, are no longer mere administrative shortcomings or fleeting technical errors. They are the inevitable consequence of the fundamental crime perpetrated by the global capitalist system, which views basic human rights as commodities subject to political bargaining, and privatization for the plunder of nations.

Electricity is the lifeblood and cornerstone of economic stability for any country. The state and governing institutions bear a fundamental duty and an absolute responsibility to secure and sustain it to serve the people and keep vital sectors running.

This tragic scene adds to the series of calamities that have befallen the people of Yemen in every aspect of life. The deteriorating electricity situation and the resulting displacement of people to the streets to escape the summer heat is a cry for help that the authorities must respond to swiftly by providing and restoring electricity, whatever the cost. However, the authorities in Aden responded by deploying their security forces to suppress the people!

The sight of streets overflowing with people fleeing the scorching heat of their darkened homes, coupled with the shameful stance of a government mobilized solely for security, starkly exposes the inability of a savage capitalist ideology to care for its people. Millions are left to die a slow death in their homes and on the streets, while the agent rulers revel in their air-conditioned comfort.

This stark reality in Yemen today, cities and towns plunged into utter darkness amidst a sweltering summer, demonstrates the rampant corruption of the rulers of Yemen, beholden to foreign powers. These rulers have prioritized their own interests over implementing the agendas of regional and international forces, deliberately destroying what remains of Yemen’s infrastructure and vital facilities. Millions of Muslims in Yemen suffer immensely, with no sign of governmental responsibility whatsoever for providing basic services and fundamental human rights like water and electricity. The rulers treat these as commodities subject to profit, loss, and political bargaining, rather than as essential services and a Shariah obligation upon the state.

The dire state of public services and the deliberate mismanagement of infrastructure in Yemen are not accidental. Instead, they are a meticulously crafted scenario. The warring factions use this situation as leverage, particularly in areas under the control of the so-called “official” government. We see people taking to the streets in protest, only to have these demonstrations exploited by the warring parties to undermine each other. In Houthi-controlled areas, were it not for the iron fist of security forces and the strict prohibition of protests, the squares would be overflowing with demonstrators, expressing their anger at the deplorable conditions palpable.

The despicable actions of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi in southern Yemen, fueling crises against each other, are nothing more than a chapter in their service to their masters in Washington and London. We see these regional proxies intervening with patchwork solutions, and buying the loyalty of agent rulers, while keeping the electricity crisis a weapon and a malicious tool in service of their colonialist project. They use it as a bargaining chip to manipulate the population as they see fit.

While America is pushing its tools to empower the rulers in the north of the country and tighten the noose on their opponents there, it is moving to control the reins of financial and economic decision-making in Aden, in order to be able to crush the agents of the British in Aden, Hadhralmaut, Marib and the western coast. This American colonialist penetration is clearly evident in the insertion of the programs of the US Agency for International Development, and the passing of the dictates of the US Treasury Department and the International Monetary Fund within the corridors of the Central Bank of Aden! American arrogance did not stop here, but instead it sought to exclude and limit the influence of the British Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, by reducing the roles of the Abu Dhabi regime, the historical regional agent of the British, and replacing it with the Riyadh regime, the active servant of American plans, using local and foreign military forces to tighten the grip on the oil regions and vital strategic ports in the country.

When have these pliable regional tools, along with their subservient local political fronts, ever brought any good to Yemen and its people? This American-British colonialist struggle over Yemen, now in its sixth decade, has been waged at the expense of the country’s vital interests, grinding down its resources and squandering its wealth until Yemen is left with virtually no economy, no hopeful education, no healthcare, and no security!

Yemen’s oil, gas, and natural resources are inherently public property according to Islamic Shariah Law. They were originally intended to serve the Ummah’s needs and power its energy facilities to provide a decent living for its citizens. However, the subservient rulers, due to their blind loyalty to colonialism, chose to freeze local production, disable service facilities, and plunge the country into a quagmire of debt and dependency. Their shameful subservience is divided between two faces: one aligned with London, the other with Washington, with no regard whatsoever for the suffering of the country’s citizens who endure the scorching summer heat and the darkness of night.

O People of Yemen: The cause of your suffering is known: the capitalist system and those who uphold it. Therefore, they must be removed, and a state established that governs your affairs according to Islam. The Messenger of Allah (saw) said, «كُلُّكُمْ رَاعٍ، وَكُلُّكُمْ مَسْئُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ» “Each of you is a shepherd, and each of you will be asked about his flock” [Muslim].

The removal of all your suffering lies in returning to the truthful ruling governance of Islam under the Khilafah Rashidah (Rightly Guided Caliphate) on the method of the Prophethood, which Hizb ut Tahrir is working to establish, in fulfillment of the promise of Allah (swt) Who said,

[وَعَدَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنكُمْ وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَيَسْتَخْلِفَنَّهُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ كَمَا اسْتَخْلَفَ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ وَلَيُمَكِّنَنَّ لَهُمْ دِينَهُمُ الَّذِي ارْتَضَىٰ لَهُمْ وَلَيُبَدِّلَنَّهُم مِّن بَعْدِ خَوْفِهِمْ أَمْناً]

“Allah has promised those of you who believe and do good that He will certainly make them successors in the land, as He did with those before them; and will surely establish for them their faith which He has chosen for them; and will indeed change their fear into security” [TMQ Surah An-Nur :55].