Yemen announces first budget after 3-year conflict

ADEN, Yemen, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi-backed Yemeni government on Sunday declared its first official budget after three years of ongoing fighting and internal conflict with the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who overran the capital Sanaa in 2014 and seized most of the country militarily.

The country's Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr announced from the southern port city of Aden that spending in the 2018 budget is projected at 1.5 trillion Yemeni riyals (3.9 billion U.S. dollars), with revenues estimated at 978 billion riyals (2.6 billion dollars).

The PM declared in press conference that "this is an austerity budget due to the recent complex situation. Salaries for the military and civil sector in 12 provinces controlled by the legitimate government will be paid monthly."

He added that "only the education and health sectors in the Houthi-controlled provinces will be included in this budget and their salaries will be dispatched every month."

Last week, Yemen's PM pleaded with the Saudi-led coalition to save the economy from imminent collapse, as the Yemeni riyal continued to rapidly depreciate against foreign currencies.

After a day of the public plea, Saudi Arabia's King Salman ordered a deposit of 2 billion dollars to be paid into Yemen's central bank to support the economy and shore up the weak Yemeni currency rial.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Southern Transitional Council held on Sunday a meeting with several anti-government military officials in Aden and declared a "state of emergency in the southern provinces."

The anti-government southern leaders demanded Yemen's President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to "replace the recent government of Bin Daghr due to its rampant corruption in Aden."

The STC speech gave President Hadi a deadline of one week to replace the Aden-based government and threatened to use other measures to topple the Saudi-backed government by force.

In a new challenge to Yemen's government, the pro-secesssion council also vowed to prevent holding sessions of Yemen's parliament in Aden or in other neighboring southern provinces.

Yemen's government, allied with the Saudi-led Arab military coalition, has for about three years been battling Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels over control of the country.

The coalition began a military air campaign in March 2015 to roll back Houthi gains and reinstate exiled President Hadi and his government to the power.

The coalition also imposed air and sea blockade to prevent weapons from reaching Houthis, who had invaded the capital Sanaa militarily and seized most of the northern Yemeni provinces.

UN statistics show more than 10,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since the coalition intervened in the Yemeni civil war that also displaced around 3 million.

The Arab country is also suffering from the world's largest cholera epidemic since April, with about 5,000 cases reported everyday. Enditem