Unpaid state salaries deepen economic pain in Yemen’s war

Relocating the central bank stopped the Houthi rebels looting funds to pay their soldiers but still public sector workers haven't been paid for months.

Public sector employees crowd at a post office to receive their salaries in Sanaa, Yemen on January 25, 2017. Khaled Abdullah / Reuters
Powered by automated translation

After nearly two years of civil war, many thousands of Yemeni state workers now face destitution as their salaries have been largely unpaid for months since the country’s central forced relocation out of Sanaa, the capital, and away from Houthi rebel control.

Yemen’s internationally-recognised Yemeni government moved base to the southern port city of Aden because the Houthis had allegedly looted the funds to pay those waging war against the legitimate administration — a charge the rebels deny. While it was necessary, the relocation has deepened economic hardship in Yemen. The United Nations estimates that 80 per cent of Yemen’s 28 million population need some form of humanitarian aid.

“I sold everything I have to cover the rent and the price of the children’s school and food. I have nothing left to sell,” said Ashraf Abdullah, 38, a government employee and father-of-two from Sanaa. “Salaries have become a playing card in the war, and no one cares about the fate of the people who die of starvation every day.”

At least 10,000 people have been killed in the fighting while millions face poverty and starvation. Saudi Arabia intervened in March 2015 to back president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi after the Houthis, who are aligned to Riyadh’s regional rival Iran, pushed him out of Sanaa.

The government It has promised to pay salaries to public servants even in the main population centres which are mostly in Houthi hands. prime minister Ahmed bin Dagher said it had sent off payments were sent off on Wednesday, but banking sources said this covered only December, and four months of wages remain unpaid for most employees.

The crisis has affected tens of thousands of employees in Sanaa alone, a source in the civil services ministry said.

It is unclear how many of the 250,000 employees registered nationwide before the Houthis seized Sanaa in 2014 have received incomplete salaries, as a large proportion in government-held areas have been paid. Nor is it known how many public sector staff were appointed by the Houthis after their rise to power, although the number is estimated to be in the tens of thousands.

The government denies it is trying to undermine support for the Houthis — whom it calls “coup militia” — by impoverishing state workers living under Houthi rule. Instead, it accuses the Houthis of obstructing the payments.

“The coup militia ... (is) refusing to hand over lists of employees’ salaries in institutions and government agencies in the capital Sanaa and the provinces they control,” said an official quoted by government news agency Saba.

While the Houthis still control the main towns and cities in the north and west, they have steadily lost ground to government troops backed up by thousands of Gulf coalition air strikes.

But the government still struggles to exert influence over territory under its own nominal control. It also has to contend with a southern secessionist movement, restive tribes and Islamic militants, while many services such as electricity and water are scarce.

Paying salaries across the battle lines of regardless of allegiance would confer national authority on the government, which the rebels want to avoid. But the fact that currently-serving and retired soldiers have demonstrated in the streets of Aden in recent days over their dues suggests the non-payments may not be strictly political.

Meanwhile concerns remain over the consequences of transferring the central bank away from its experienced staff in Sanaa.

“The new central bank in Aden remains unequipped — on the basis of manpower alone — to handle the duties that its predecessor institution did,” said Adam Baron, a Yemen expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

The new bank denies this and says it is committed to working impartially and overcoming wartime confusion to do its job.

For many Yemenis a solution is already too late in coming.

“This is our fifth month without a salary, and we live by borrowing from the corner store, but now they are refusing to give us anything and are calling in their debt,” said Abdullah Ahmed, 50, a soldier in the interior ministry. “The landlord is demanding rent for the apartment ... we’re dying, not living. Every door is being closed in our faces.”

* Reuters