May 23, 2012
Saudi Arabia and Western and Gulf
states pledged more than $4 billion in aid to Yemen at a Riyadh conference two
days after more than 90 Yemeni soldiers were killed in a suicide attack,
deepening concerns about al Qaeda’s presence in the country.
In a statement issued in London,
seven aid agencies called for urgent food and other aid to head off a
humanitarian disaster. They said almost a half of Yemen’s population did not
have enough to eat.
At the Riyadh conference, Saudi
Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, pledged $3.25 billion of a total $4
billion in aid.
Riyadh, which already provides oil
and military aid to its impoverished neighbour, convened Western and Arab Gulf
nations in a lavish new hotel hung with crystal chandeliers to see how they can
help Yemen push ahead with reforms and tackle its poverty and lawlessness.
“I assert one more time our support to Yemen
to back all the phases of the political initiative to help achieve security,
stability and prosperity in facing the threats of extremism and terrorism,”
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told envoys.
The donor group, which is
co-chaired by Britain, was discussing political developments since President
Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down in February, ending his three-decade rule in
the Arabian Peninsula state after nearly a year of mass protests.
Another meeting, specifically
directed at aid pledges, will be held in Riyadh in late June, with a
ministerial meeting to follow on the side-lines of the United Nations General
Assembly in September.
“The future for Yemen is not about one-off
donations. The future for Yemen is about the process that’s already been set in
train for the transition of that country,” said British Foreign Office Minister
Alistair Burt after the meeting.
Mr. Burt said Britain had pledged
an additional $44 million on top of its existing aid to Yemen.
“More than $4 billion was pledged today. But
the significance of today was it was important to reconfirm the support of such
a large group of countries for Yemen,” Mr. Burt said.
Monday’s attack on a military
parade was the latest violent incident in a country wracked by political
turmoil, where the army has split into rival factions and much of the south has
fallen under the control of an Islamist militia allied to al Qaeda’s local
wing.
Saudi Arabia and Western countries
have watched with mounting alarm as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, known as
AQAP, has taken advantage of the lawlessness to set up a base capable of
planning sophisticated international attacks.
“This [aid] shows the Yemeni-Saudi
relationship is quite strong and Saudi Arabia is cognizant that the stability
of Saudi Arabia depends on that of Yemen,” said Yemeni Foreign Minister Abubakr
al-Qirbi.
In early May, Washington said
Western and Arab intelligence agencies had foiled a bomb plot aimed at a
passenger airplane. In October 2010, AQAP had tried to send bomb-laden parcels
to the United States and in 2009, a bomber from Yemen was caught trying to
ignite explosives on a U.S.-bound flight.
In London, Penny Lawrence,
international director at Oxfam, said donors were being short-sighted by
focusing solely on politics and security in the country.
“Failure to respond adequately to the
humanitarian needs now will put more lives at risk, further entrench poverty
and could undermine political transition in the country,” she said.
MORE NEEDED
Wednesday’s Riyadh donor meeting
was aimed at strengthening the Yemeni state and returning a semblance of
economic stability to a country where 40 per cent of the population lives on
less than $2 a day.
Yemen’s modest oil exports that
were a source of foreign exchange were hit by repeated attacks on pipelines
last year. Yemen is rapidly depleting the water in its aquifers, and by some
estimates the capital Sanaa may run out of water in the coming decade or
sooner.
The planning and international
co-operation minister told the conference his country needed an initial $2.17
billion to help stabilize the country, fight militant attacks and ease a
humanitarian crisis.
It required a further $5.8 billion
in future to develop the economy and national infrastructure, with $3.7 billion
needed by 2014, he added.
As the meeting began, Yemeni
Finance Minister Sakhr al-Wajih told reporters he would be happy if his country
achieved economic growth of 1 per cent in 2012, and that even this modest goal
relied on foreign generosity.
Yemen is likely to run a $2.5
billion budget deficit this year, he added. But he was unable to say by how
much the economy had contracted during the political turmoil of 2011.
“The [Saudi] contribution will support
development projects agreed upon,” Prince Saud said, without giving details on
how the money would be disbursed.
Some $3 billion of aid pledged by
the Friends of Yemen group when it first met in 2006 has still not been
delivered, the government said in February.
Yemen’s deputy finance minister,
Jalal Yaqoub, told Reuters: “Saudi Arabia has shown great generosity... Yemen
has to increase its capacity to absorb these funds efficiently. This money must
be translated into projects that citizens can actually feel.”
Countries from the Gulf Co-operation
Council, which includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab
Emirates and Oman, attended the meeting, as did the United States, the European
Union, France, Egypt and Russia, the International Monetary Fund and the World
Bank.
In April the IMF resumed lending
to Yemen, approving the payment of a $93.7 million loan to help it address a
balance of payments deficit that worsened during the political turmoil.
Posts
