Al Mukalla: The internationally recognised government of Yemen, currently based in the southern port city of Aden, has begun paying thousands of army and security forces three months’ salaries in arrears under tightened security measures, local army officers said on Wednesday.
Military and public servants have not been paid since September when the president of Yemen Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi ordered relocating the headquarters of the central bank to the city of Aden to put an end to Al Houthis misusing the country’s reserves.
Shortly after the relocation of the monetary authority, the government pledged to pay all government employees who had been added to the payroll before 2014 including those who reside in Al Houthis-controlled territories. Hundreds of soldiers from the army and public security were seen queuing up on Wednesday inside their military camps to receive three months’ worth of salaries as the government stepped up security to prevent suicide bombers from sneaking into the gatherings.
A senior security officer told Gulf News that the soldiers were paid in person and in Yemeni riyals. “The salaries are from Saudi Arabia and only for one month. I have not been paid my salaries for August, September and October,” the officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief reporters, adding that the government committees will be paying them for the other months in the coming days.
Also on Wednesday, the sate-run Saba news agency said that prime minister Ahmad Obaid Bin Daghar said that his government would pay salaries of the country’s ambassadors and diplomats abroad and in Yemen. The government has already paid the funds of Yemeni students overseas.
Al Houthis have not paid government salaries for the last couple of months despite generating billions of riyals monthly from Hodeida seaport and other revenues from taxing products and local businesses.
Residents in the southern city of Taiz said on Wednesday that a shell fired by Al Houthis from the outskirts hit a house on the eastern side, injuring seven members of one family. Two are in critical condition.
At the same time, at least eight government forces and Al Houthis were killed in fierce clashes in many districts in the city. Al Houthis shelled loyalists-held sites near an air defence brigade on the eastern edges of the city as the government forces intensified attacks to control new locations. Army commanders said on Wednesday that the Saudi-led coalition fighter jets struck several military sites in Sana’a and destroyed Al Houthi reinforcements in Taiz, Marib, Jawf and Shabwa.
