Hadramout.. The Transport and Communications Syndicate announces a comprehensive bus strike in Mukalla

The Transport and Communications Syndicate in Hadhramaut Governorate (eastern Yemen) approved a comprehensive strike for buses and taxis starting today, Thursday.

The decision came after the suspension of subsidized diesel for public transportation, and the delay in implementing the local authority’s decision issued last Friday, October 25, to reduce the price of a liter of diesel to 800 riyals for public and private transportation.

The union said in a statement that it had demanded that the local authority in the city of Mukalla "pump diesel at the previous price (1,200 riyals per liter) and continue doing so until the procedures for disbursing the subsidized allocation (800 riyals per liter) are completed," stressing that legal and escalatory measures would be taken unless the local authority met its demands to disburse subsidized diesel.

The local authority, led by the governor of the province, Mabkhout bin Madi, issued a decision on Friday, October 25, to allocate 350,000 liters of diesel from the total quantities of PetroMasila Company diesel to cover the local market in the province on a daily basis at a price of 800 riyals per liter.

A responsible source in the Hadhramaut Tribal Alliance - which is demanding the rights of the governorate - explained regarding the local authority's decision to cover the local market with diesel produced by PetroMasila, that "until this moment, no practical step has been taken to guarantee that the citizen will benefit from this decision by the concerned authorities, and they are responsible for this file."

In a related context, a number of schools in the city of Mukalla announced today, Thursday, the suspension of studies in conjunction with the bus strike.