Al-Qaeda still reaping oil profits in Yemen

DUBAI/LONDON/CAIRO: Al-Qaeda may have been pushed out of the enclave it carved out in Yemen as the country descended into civil war, but the militants are still entrenched in other parts of the country’s south, reaping profits from smuggled fuel.

Scores of militants were killed in a Gulf Arab-backed offensive on Al-Qaeda’s de facto capital of Mukalla, Yemen’s third largest seaport, but hundreds fled to neighbouring Shabwa province and beyond.

A month later, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is thriving by joining diverse armed groups in taxing fuel delivered illicitly to remote beaches along the Arabian Sea coast, security, tribal and shipping sources say.

Home to Yemen’s largest industrial project, a now-shut liquefied natural gas export facility at Belhaf, Shabwa is divided among al Qaeda, government troops loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, Houthi forces and armed tribes. Tribal sources say all sides are benefiting at a time of extreme fuel shortages around the country.

“There are five checkpoints in Shabwa between Bir Ali and Ataq leading to the Houthi-controlled interior ...one by the army, one by a tribal militia and one by the acting governor. Al-Qaeda maintains two at Azzan,” a local tribal leader said. General Faraj al-Buhsani, commander of the Yemeni forces which routed AQAP in Mukalla, concurred.

“In Azzan (al-Qaeda) has a hub for the trade in oil products coming from Belhaf and that area in the direction of Shabwa which is ongoing. We are hearing about this continuously. “Aid groups say Yemen in an average recent month brings in less than 10 percent of the more than 500,000 tonnes of fuel it needs, partly because many Yemeni ports are subject to a Gulf Arab quasi-blockade to prevent arms reaching the Houthis.