Yemen president says Saudi allocated $10bn for reconstruction

Yemen's President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi said Wednesday that Saudi Arabia has earmarked $10 billion in aid for the reconstruction of provinces retaken from Houthi rebels.

Riyadh, which since March 2015 has led a military coalition to support pro-Hadi fighters in Yemen, has made no official announcement on the aid.

Hadi said the oil-rich neighbouring kingdom had allocated $10 billion "for the reconstruction of liberated provinces, including $2 billion as a deposit in the central bank to shore up the (Yemeni) riyal", the Saba news agency reported.

The president, speaking in the government's temporary southern capital of Aden, called on his government to focus on power, water, roads, health and education in retaken areas.

Last August, a Yemeni minister estimated that the country would need at least $15 billion for reconstruction efforts.

Abdulraqeb Saif Fateh, Yemen's minister of local administration, mentioned the figure on the sidelines of a workshop on Yemen's post-war recovery but gave no details of what exactly the figure would cover

Yemen was already the Arab world's poorest country before the Saudi-led coalition began air raids and later sent in ground forces to support Hadi’s government.

Pro-government forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition took back five southern provinces from the rebels in 2016, but Houthis still control the capital and much of northern Yemen.

More than 10,000 people have been killed since the coalition intervened in impoverished Yemen two years ago, including around 1,400 children, according to the United Nations.