Al Mukalla: Yemen’s Prime Minister Khalid Bahah was in Riyadh on Monday securing critical relief and reconstruction aid for areas in Yemen liberated from Al Houthi militant control.
“He will be discussing relief efforts, security issues and reconstruction projects,” Badr Ba Salma, Yemen’s transport minister told Gulf News from Aden.
On Saturday, Bahah pledged to restore ‘normalcy’ to the port city as residents are trying to recover from a brutal Al Houthi offensive earlier this year.
“These critical issues would not have been addressed if Bahah remained in Aden. The government needs a lot of financial support to rebuild and also to support the new Special Forces and Counterterrorism Brigade,” Ba Salma added.
The minister squashed what he said were rumours that Bahah fled the city after a Daesh attack on his hotel.
“Many foreign donors like the British and Americans cannot travel to Aden due to security concerns, so Bahah had to travel instead,” Ba Salma said.
Bahah sailed to Djibouti and took a flight to Riyadh. It was Bahah’s second visit to Riyadh since he returned to Aden from exile.
Meanwhile on the ground, government forces backed by resistance fighters took control of a small area called Al Omari in the provice of Taiz, days after tightening their grip on the coastal town of Dhubab near the strategically important Bab Al Mandab strait.
“We have fortified defences in Al Omari and Dhubab to curb any attempt by Al Houthis to smuggle troops into the south,” an army officer from the Aden-based 4th Military Region told Gulf News on the condition of anonymity.
Military sources in Aden say that army troops and resistance fighters are amassing in the area to launch another massive assault on the Al Houthi-controlled coastline town of Mokha, an important trading hub on the Red Sea.
