Yemen defence ministry accuses Central Bank, finance ministry of obstructing payment of military salaries

A senior source in the Yemeni Ministry of Defence has accused the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Yemen of obstructing the payment of army salaries in a number of military regions, bodies and departments, the Al-Masdar news site reported.

The site quoted the source as saying that the finance ministry’s leadership and the bank promised a few days ago to pay at least two of the delayed salaries but did not fulfill their promise despite the repeated presidential and government directives.

The source accused the finance ministry and the bank of not treating the military regions equally, explaining that the salaries of the fourth military zone are being paid on time, while the salaries of the first, third, sixth and seventh regions have not been paid for months.

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According to the source, the salaries of three months from 2019 and the salaries of the past six months of the current year have not been paid for three regions, while the salaries of March and April were paid to the fourth region days ago.

Earlier this year, the Yemeni president and prime minister issued instructions to pay the salaries of the army and security forces regularly and to address the imbalances that occurred, but the directives had not been fulfilled.

The third, sixth and seventh military region units have been fighting Houthi rebels on several fronts despite not receiving their salaries.