BFF-21 Yemen government announces pay rise after mass protest

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YEMEN-CONFLICT-UNREST

Yemen government announces pay rise after mass protest

ADEN, Sept 3, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Yemen’s embattled government has agreed to
raise the salaries of thousands of public-sector employees, including
pensioners, after hundreds of people protested in Aden against the rising
cost of living.

For more than a year, the government has been unable to pay salaries in the
impoverished and war-torn country, as the local currency plummets against the
dollar.

Late Sunday a cabinet meeting in Riyadh chaired by President Abedrabbo
Mansour Hadi, who has lived in exile since 2015, approved “an increase in
civil sector salaries, including retirees and contractors”, Yemen’s state-run
Saba news agency reported.

It was not immediately clear when the raise would take effect.

The decision came hours after hundreds of people took to the streets of
Aden, the southern province that now serves as the government’s de facto
capital, burning tyres and blocking main roads to demand government aid.

Protest organisers have called for further civil disobedience until the
government instates measures to aid millions of Yemenis struggling to
survive.

The riyal has lost more than two-thirds of its value against the dollar
since 2015, when Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the government’s fight
against Yemen’s Huthi rebels.

The economic downturn, along with a blockade on the rebel-held
international airport and ports, has left Yemenis unable to afford food
staples and bottled water.

In January, Saudi Arabia — Hadi’s main ally — announced a $2 billion
bailout to help bolster the central bank. The riyal rose briefly that month
but has since plummeted by a hefty 36 percent.

In 2016, more than one million civil servants lost their jobs as Hadi
transferred the official central bank from Sanaa to Aden.

The rebels operate their own central bank from the capital, which they have
controlled since 2014.

The Yemeni war has triggered what the UN calls the world’s largest single
humanitarian crisis, with more than three-quarters of the population in need
of humanitarian aid and 8.4 million at risk of famine.

BSS/AFP/MSY/1219 hrs