Reuters/Riyadh

Yemen’s Prime Minister Mohamed Salem Basindwa (centre), Saudi Arabia’s Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf (left) and Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani arrive at an international donor meeting for Yemen in Riyadh yesterday
International donors pledged $6.4bn in aid to Yemen yesterday, meeting the state’s immediate need for financial support as it struggles towards becoming a democracy against the backdrop of a humanitarian and security crisis.
“More than 10mn Yemenis sleep and wake up in the morning without (knowing if) they will have food for the day,” said Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN resident co-ordinator for Yemen, adding that 54% of Yemenis live under the poverty line.
Yemeni officials had earlier said they needed $4.7bn in aid by the end of a formal transition period in February 2014, as the country attempts to balance a massive gap in its budget and rebuild its economy.
Western delegates to the donor conference said they were satisfied with the amount of aid pledged, which they thought likely to be increased at a follow-up meeting in New York during the UN General Assembly this month.
“The total number amounts to $6.396bn, which will adequately ... fund the short term as well as significant portions of the long term,” Inger Andersen, vice president for Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank, told the donor meeting.
More than half the aid pledged yesterday, $3.25bn, had already been promised by Saudi Arabia at a meeting in May.
That figure includes a $1bn loan that was paid into Yemen’s central bank yesterday and comes with a four-year grace period, Yemeni Deputy Finance Minister Jalal Omar Yaqoub said.