UN hails Yemen leader’s move to pay Hudaydah salaries

By Mohamed al-Samei

ADEN, Yemen (AA) - UN special envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths on Friday welcomed a decision by Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi to pay the salaries of civil servants in Yemen’s war-weary Al-Hudaydah province.

On Thursday, Hadi ordered his government to pay the overdue salaries of government employees in Al-Hudaydah, including salaries for the month of December.

"The Special Envoy welcomes President Hadi's decision to order the payment of salaries for all civil servants in Al-Hudaydah province," Griffiths tweeted.

He went on to describe Hadi's decision as “an important step towards improving the economic situation and alleviating the Yemeni people’s suffering”.

Last Friday, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a U.K.-sponsored resolution approving deployment of a UN team tasked with monitoring a ceasefire in Al-Hudaydah that went into effect earlier this month.

Home to several strategic seaports, Al-Hudaydah constitutes a lifeline for Yemen's beleaguered civilian population, with significant amounts of humanitarian aid regularly flowing through the port city.

Impoverished Yemen has remained dogged by violence and strife since 2014, when the Houthi rebel group overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.

The following year, Saudi Arabia and several of its Arab allies launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains and shoring up Hadi’s embattled government.

The Saudi-led campaign in Yemen has devastated much of the country's basic infrastructure, including health and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.