Saudi gives $500m to ease Yemeni govt’s budget deficit

Saudi Arabia will give war-riven Yemen’s internationally recognised government $500 million to pay salaries and other expenses, a Saudi official said Friday.

The sum is part of the $1.2 billion approved last year to prop up Yemen’s government, which was forced out of the capital Sanaa by Iran-backed Huthi rebels in 2014.

The money was allocated “to address the Yemeni government’s budget deficit”, the official told AFP. Saudi Arabia also made payments of $250 million in February and in August last year.

“The funds aim to support salaries, operational expenses, enhance food security and assist economic reforms, reflecting (Saudi Arabia’s) commitment to Yemen’s security, stability and prosperity,” the official said.

Neighbouring oil-rich Saudi Arabia launched a military campaign at the head of a multinational coalition in 2015, hoping to dislodge the Huthis.

The ensuing war has cost hundreds of thousands of lives through fighting or indirect causes such as hunger, and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Meanwhile, the ousted, Saudi-backed government — now based in Aden in Yemen’s south — has long struggled to finance basic services.

Although a UN-brokered ceasefire has sharply curtailed fighting since April 2022, the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country remains volatile.

The Huthis are currently locked in escalating hostilities with Israel, with repeated missile and drone attacks prompting Israeli air raids on multiple targets on Thursday.

Months of Huthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, in solidarity with Palestinians during the Gaza war, have also brought reprisal strikes from the United States and Britain.