Dubai: Saudi Arabia will grant $422 million (Dh1.5 billion) worth of petroleum products to Yemen’s internationally recognised government for power stations and to support public services as the country grapples with a fuel shortage, state news agency SPA said on Tuesday.
It said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman informed Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi of the grant under the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program in a telephone call.
Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 against the Iran-aligned Houthis who ousted Hadi’s government from the capital Sanaa and now hold most of northern Yemen. The government is based in the south.
Fuel shortages have knocked out water pumps, generators in hospitals and disrupted aid supplies in Yemen, where 80 per cent of the population need help.
Last week Hadi’s government said it had approved entry of some fuel ships to Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hodeidah, which is controlled by the Houthi movement.
