| Kippreport.com

UAE to give Yemen $136 million aid

June 4, 2012 10:58 by Reuters

The United Arab Emirates will give 500 million dirhams ($136 million) in food aid to Yemen, state news agency WAM said on Sunday, as part of international efforts to head off a humanitarian disaster and stabilise the impoverished state.

Western and Gulf Arab countries have watched with mounting alarm as a political crisis and lawlessness in the country have given al Qaeda the opportunity to develop a solid base.

Western and Gulf states pledged more than $4 billion in aid to Yemen at a conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh last month, $3.25 billion of that total pledged by Saudi Arabia.

The meeting came two days after more than 90 Yemeni soldiers were killed in a suicide attack that deepened concerns about the security situation.

A year of protests against former president Ali Abdullah Saleh brought Yemen’s economy to the brink of collapse.

About 40 percent of the Yemeni people live on less than $2 a day. Aid agencies warned last month that almost half the population did not have enough to eat.

(Reporting by Rania El Gamal; Editing by Pravin Char

Tags: Economy, food aid, Gulf Arab states, UAE, Yemen