Aden (South24)

Judicial and security authorities in several South Yemen governorates have carried out a campaign to close illegal or unlicensed currency exchange stores and institutions amid a sharp decline in the value of the Yemeni rial.

On Sunday (November 10), the Public Prosecution announced the closure of 50 currency exchange offices in the Wadi districts of Hadramout Governorate, on the directive of the Attorney General and the lists submitted by the Central Bank in Aden.

The authorities in the Hadramout coastal districts announced that they had closed about 10 illegal or unlicensed exchange offices. They also closed 12 such stores in the neighboring Al Mahrah Governorate.

The head of the Public Funds Prosecution in the coast of Hadramout, Judge Raed Lardhi, said the aim of the campaign is to halt manipulation of currency prices and to stop unlicensed exchange stores from carrying on with their activity.

He added, according to the ’Alqadaeya‘ newspaper affiliated with the Ministry of Justice,: “Unlicensed exchange offices practice currency speculation and are not subject to the supervision of the Central Bank and anti-money laundering policies.”

In the capital, Aden, authorities have closed at least 40 exchange stores since the campaign began on October 31.

The campaign comes amid an unprecedented fall in the value of the Yemeni rial, the country’s local currency, that sank to 2,040 rials for one US dollar in recent weeks. This is the lowest value in history for the rial that began trading in 1990.