King Salman orders $2bn bailout in response to Yemen’s distress call

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman yesterday ordered the transfer of US$2 billion (Dh7.3bn) to Yemen after the Yemeni prime minister urged the kingdom and its allies to act “now, not tomorrow” to save the local currency from collapse.

Riyadh, which is leading a military coalition fighting in Yemen, said the funds would be deposited in Yemen’s central bank to help address the “deteriorating economic situation faced by the Yemeni people”.

The Yemeni rial, trading at 500 to the dollar, has lost half its value in the past three years amid a war that has killed 10,000, displaced about 2 million people and pushed millions to the brink of famine.

On Tuesday, Yemeni prime minister Ahmed Obeid Bin Daghir said saving the Yemeni rial means “saving Yemenis from inevitable famine”, urging Saudi Arabia and its allies to deliver a bailout.

The Saudi-led coalition, of which the UAE is a member, is backing Mr Bin Daghir’s internationally recognised government in its efforts to retake large areas of the country – including the capital, Sanaa – from Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Also on Tuesday, a group of 40 Houthis – including two tribal leaders – defected from the rebel movement to join forces with fighters loyal to the government.

The defections took place on the Barat Al Enan front in Yemen’s northern Al Jouf province, Ramzi Mokhtar, a journalist on the ground said.

Maj Gen Mansour Thwabah of the army said the defectors decided to switch sides “because they [wanted] a chance to atone for their mistakes”.

The defections came as government troops, backed by Saudi-led coalition warplanes, continued their advance in the northern province of Saada, the Houthis’ stronghold.

Mokhtar said they were close to retaking the districts of Al Buka and Kitaf, in eastern Saada.

The majority of the population in these areas comes from the same tribe as the founder of the Houthi movement, Hussein Badreddin Al Houthi.

Tens of Houthis had been killed and many more injured in the recent fighting, he said.

Further south, progovernment forces were also making rapid advances in Hodeidah province, getting closer to the provincial capital after capturing the districts of Al Koukhah and Haiys, said army spokesman Maj Gen Abdo Megal.

“The Houthis are facing a critical time on the western coast. Over the past three days, hundreds of them [have defected] to the Yemeni army, tens have been killed and hundreds arrested.”

He said the Houthis were responding with mortars from a distance, rather than engaging in close combat. Two children were killed by Houthi shelling on Tuesday, he said.

Also on Tuesday, the coalition forces destroyed a platform on the Yemeni-Saudi border that was used by the Houthis to fire missiles at the kingdom.