Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced today that revenues from the Suez Canal, one of the country’s main sources of foreign exchange, “decreased by 40-50%» since the beginning of the year, following attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Since November, the Houthis say they have been targeting ships linked to Israel or its allies as a show of solidarity with Palestinians in the relentlessly bombarded Gaza Strip, following Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 deadly attack on Israeli soil.

The Houthi attacks have led many shipowners to decide in 2024 to detour their ships around Africa indefinitely and suspend crossings through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, through which 12-15% usually pass of world traffic, according to the European Union.

“You see what is happening on our borders (…) with Gaza, you see the Suez Canal that used to bring Egypt almost 10 billion dollars a year, (those revenues) have decreased by 40% to 50% and Egypt has to continue to pay businesses and partnersSisi said during a meeting with oil companies.

The massive project, inaugurated in 1869, brought in about $8.6 billion to Egypt in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, a windfall in a country where importers and currency exchangers are struggling to find dollars.

In the country, which is facing the worst economic crisis in its history, revenues from the Canal are watched as closely as tourism revenues and remittances from Egyptians working abroad.