Germany pledges 265 ml euros in aid to Yemen

March 11, 2012

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Saturday pledged 265 million euros in aid to Yemen during a visit to the impoverished Arabian peninsula country, state-run Saba news agency said.

Westerwelle also held talks with Yemen new President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi during a brief visit to Sanaa before heading to neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

Westerwelle paid tribute to the "peaceful transition" which last month saw Hadi replace veteran strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh who ceded power in line with a Gulf-brokered deal following months of mass pro-democracy protests demanding his ouster, Saba said.

The new president will be serving for a two-year transitional period and Germany has said it was ready to help Yemen rebuild.

"Developments in Yemen have shown that the political solution is possible. Peaceful transition is necessary and it must be understood by other countries," Saba quoted him as saying.

Westerwelle was apparently refering to Syria where at least 8,500 people have been killed in a regime crackdown on dissent, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

The German foreign minister also announced that his country will provide 265 million euros to help rebuild Yemen.

Germany will attend a "Friends of Yemen" forum of aid donors in Riyadh in April, the foreign minister said, according to Saba.

Later in the evening Westerwelle travelled to Saudi Arabia where he is due to hold talks with officials on the violence in Syria, diplomats said.

AFP