To compensate for oil revenues.. Governmental demands to transfer humanitarian funds through the Central Bank
English - Tuesday 21 February 2023 الساعة 02:45 pm
Aden, NewsYemen, exclusive:
On Monday, the European Union announced the allocation of financial aid to Yemen, amid repeated calls from the Presidential Council and the government to pump aid provided by Western countries and international organizations through the Central Bank in Aden.
On the sidelines of the International Humanitarian Forum held in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, the European Union announced the allocation of funding of about 193 million euros, equivalent to 206 million dollars, to help the most vulnerable groups in Yemen.
The European Commission said, in a press release, that about 136 million euros of this amount will be directed to European Union partners in the humanitarian field, such as the United Nations and non-governmental organizations, while 55 million euros will be allocated as development aid to support food security.
The allocation of these sums comes only 4 days after the President of the Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, confirmed, during his meeting in Brussels, with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, "the importance of pushing the European Union towards pumping approved funds for international organizations through the Central Bank in Aden."
Throughout the past years of the war, the issue of the survival of the headquarters of international organizations in Sana'a and their continued pumping of humanitarian funds through commercial banks under the control of the Houthi group, received little attention from the legitimate government, despite the warnings of experts and specialists in the relief and economic fields.
However, the matter is different now, with the crisis that the government is currently experiencing due to the halting of the oil export process about 4 months ago due to the attacks launched by the Houthi militia on the export ports in the liberated governorates.
The Prime Minister recently revealed that the Houthi militia attacks on oil export ports caused a loss of between $800 million and $1 billion, which prompts the government to search for solutions to compensate for this loss and strengthen the central bank in Aden with hard currency, to ensure the stability of the local currency.
One of these solutions, in the view of the government, is the humanitarian funds provided by countries and entities through international organizations, which amount to about two billion dollars annually, according to the reports of the Central Bank in Aden. This was said by the President of the Presidential Leadership Council in his meeting with the President of the European Council.
In this context, it seems clear the interest shown by the government and the Presidential Leadership Council in their meetings with officials in Brussels with European officials to discuss the ongoing preparations for the Humanitarian Response Conference on Yemen at the end of next month in Geneva, to increase the volume of humanitarian funding.
As the government hopes for the success of the conference to collect financial aid from donors in a higher number than the number collected at the conference last year, which did not exceed 1.3 billion US dollars, a number that the United Nations considered a disappointment compared to the size of the humanitarian needs.
