Arab Fund for Development resumes its activities in Yemen

The Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD) has resumed its activities in Yemen for the first time in a year, the Yemeni Minister of Public Works said.

Minister Moeen Abdul Malek today praised the Arab fund’s decision to complete its “projects in Yemen as the first regional fund to resume financing development projects in the various provinces in Yemen”.

The Yemeni government is making great efforts to return the work of regional and international funds to implement projects that have stopped in Yemen because of the war launched by the Houthis and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh on the state.

The fund, in partnership with the Yemeni government, will finance construction work to the value of $34 million, Yemen’s Saba news agency reported.

The Arab Fund for Development continued to operate in Yemen during the first year of the war, but suspended its activities in the middle of last year as Yemen stopped repaying its debts.

Yemen has been locked in a bitter battle since the Iranian-backed Houthis took control of the capital, Sana’a, in 2014. The internationally recognised President, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, was forced to exile in Saudi only to return to the southern capital, Aden, months later.

A Saudi-led coalition is now fighting to regain control of Houthi held areas of the country.