SANAA: Yemen’s warring sides opened a new front in their five-year conflict on Saturday — a battle over old and new banknotes that threatens to create two economies in the same state.
As of midnight, the Houthi movement which controls the capital Sanaa outlawed the use and possession of crisp new Yemeni riyal bills issued by its rivals in the internationally recognised government based in the southern port town of Aden.
The Iran-allied Houthis, who say people should only use the old bills, have defended the ban as a move against inflation and what they call rampant money-printing by the government.
The government has branded the ban an act of economic vandalism.