Yemeni street seller sets himself on fire in Aden tax protest

A Yemeni street seller set himself on fire in the southern port city of Aden on Wednesday, in protest over a tax dispute as economic hardship drives millions of Yemenis to the brink of hunger and deprivation. 

The local governorate confiscated and destroyed Aden clothing salesman Wazer Abdo Ali's products after he was unable to pay freshly imposed taxes on his mobile stall, according to Yemeni news site Aden al-Ghad. 

In protest against the confiscation, eyewitnesses said the street seller covered himself in petrol and set himself alight outside the local municipality in the Sheikh Othman neighbourhood of Aden. 

Some Yemenis drew comparisons between Wednesday's desperate protest and the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian street seller who took his own life in the same fashion at the start of the Arab Spring uprisings. 

Abdo Ali was rushed to a nearby MSF hospital and is currently receiving life-saving surgery, but his situation remains critical. 

Images purporting to show the man’s young son waiting for his father’s return where his stall usually sits have also been circulating on social media.

طفل الرجل الذي احرق نفسه في عدن ينتظر على امل ان يستعيد بسطة والده، كان يعمل بها الطفل في الصباح ووالده في المساء
صورة تختزل مستوى الوضاعة والانحطاط الذي وصلت اليها قيادات وجهت كل اسلحتها الى صدر المواطن البسيط وأثرت نفسها على حساب مستقبل اجيال!
الصورة من موقع عدن الغد! pic.twitter.com/WFnxGLAfhl

— Nadwa Dawsari (@Ndawsari) June 22, 2023

Twitter users were generally critical of the Aden authorities and supportive of Ali.

"Who gave the governorate the right to seize and destroy this seller's produce?" tweeted Yemeni activist Meri Ali. "Their job is to improve the conditions of the city, provide water - but here they are stealing and burning someone's goods." 

Yemen has suffered from years of complex conflict between Houthi rebels and the internationally recognised government. In Aden, where the government nominally holds sway, its authority is challenged by the separatist Southern Transitional Council.

The country's social fabric has been torn apart and it is now in the midst of what the UN calls "the world's worst humanitarian crisis" with widespread poverty and hunger.

It was ranked as the seventh most miserable country in the world by John Hopkins University this year.

Last month, a video circulating on social media purported to show a girl stabbed to death by her neighbour in the capital Sanaa over access to a water tank. 

Organised protest is relatively rare though as reprisal by security forces - both in the Houthi-controlled northern regions of Yemen, and in southern Yemen - is often swift and repressive.