Donors pledge billions to Yemen

Western and Gulf Arab countries have watched with mounting alarm as political crisis in Yemen has given al Qaeda the opportunity to develop a base from which to launch attacks around the world. At a meeting of Friends for Yemen yesterday in Riyadh, more than $4 billion was pledged to help stabilize the country. Almost half of Yemenis do not have enough to eat and urgent aid is needed to avert a catastrophe.

The United Nations Resident Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said the meeting will go a long way to help.

"The government of Saudi Arabia very generously promised to provide $3.2 billion to support the economic infrastructure and the ambitious programme of the government of Yemen,” he told UN Radio. “There were also the pledges in terms of the British government, the EU and the World Bank also say they will provide now an additional facility of $400 million which will bring the total support of the World Bank to over $700 million."

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