Yemen's $60m mosque puzzles poor

Yemen: The inauguration of an enormous new mosque named after Yemen's president has bewildered the people of this impoverished Arab country - especially when they learned it cost a staggering $60 million (Dh220.3 million).

It's a massive sum in a country that ranks as the poorest in the Arab world and is beset by internal armed conflict, terrorism and severe malnutrition.

"We need schools and hospitals," said Salem Ahmad, a government employee. "Many Yemenis have to travel abroad for medical treatment. This is hypocrisy."

Senior Islamic clerics dutifully turned out for Saturday's opening ceremony of the Saleh Mosque to play their part in glorifying the country's leader, President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Lavish building projects are an unusual sight in Yemen, many of whose 22 million people are wracked by poverty.

According to a 2008 survey by the World Food project, some 43 per cent of the population is either moderately or severely food insecure, and the UNDP estimates 46 per cent of the population is below the poverty line.

Rising food prices in a country where half the wheat is imported has exacerbated the situation, as well as a deadly tropical storm that smashed into the country on October 24, causing widespread flooding that wiped away 20,000 people's homes in one of the poorest provinces.

Much of what the country does earn - largely through oil sales - is believed to go toward arms and security.

Yemen's armed forces battled rebels in the country's north for four years until Saleh declared an end to that fighting in July. The rebels accuse the government of corruption and neglect.

And there is unrest lingering from the 14-year civil war between the country's north and south.

Furthermore, Yemen's heavily armed tribes barely acknowledge the central government's authority, and there is a persistent Al Qaida movement that has attacked and killed foreigners, most recently launching a suicide car bombing outside the US Embassy on September 17 which killed 19 people.