UN experts withdraw corruption claims against Yemen central bank

1 / 2
Guards stand at the gate of the Central Bank of Yemen in Sanaa January 7, 2020. (REUTERS)
2 / 2
A member of Yemeni security forces stands guard next to the central bank in Aden on October 29, 2016. (File/AFP)
Short Url
Updated 30 March 2021
Follow

UN experts withdraw corruption claims against Yemen central bank

  • The government said that the Saudi deposit had alleviated the humanitarian crisis, helped steady the Yemeni riyal and lower the price of foodstuffs

AL-MUKALLA: A UN panel has retracted money laundering and corruption claims against Yemen’s central bank, according to a government official.
In January, the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen accused the Aden-based institution of embezzling funds from a hefty Saudi deposit, which was allocated for buying food, and helping Yemeni conglomerates to rack up millions of dollars in profits.
Last week, after an internal review, the experts informed the government they were withdrawing their accusations about the central bank and promised to update the report.
“They informed us about the withdrawal of their accusations on March 25,” the government official told Arab News on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.
The experts’ accusations caused uproar in Yemen, prompting the government to assign an international auditing company to look into the financial activities of the central bank and accusing the panel of using a wrong mechanism during its investigation.
Parliament also formed a committee of financial officials to investigate the accusations.
The government said that the Saudi deposit had alleviated the humanitarian crisis, helped steady the Yemeni riyal and lower the price of foodstuffs.
In its report on Friday, the Sanaa Centre for Strategies Studies said it had found “serious” flaws in the UN report regarding the government’s management of the Saudi deposit and its impact on the stability of the local currency and food prices. 
“While Yemenis have suffered from currency depreciation and price inflation throughout most of the conflict, they received a relative reprieve from the end of 2018 to the end of 2019, when the average price of a minimum food basket decreased slightly year-on-year and the Yemeni riyal exchange rate was generally stable,” the report said, responding to the panel’s assertions that the central bank’s management of the deposit did not benefit the Yemeni people and did not lead to a decrease in prices.

FASTFACT

The Yemen government’s Executive Unit for IDP Camps urged the UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths and international aid organizations to pressure the Houthis to stop attacking the camps in Marib. 

The center demanded that the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen “immediately” fix errors in its report, review the mechanism that had led to their wrong conclusions and seek help from Yemeni financial experts.
The retraction came as fighting between government forces and the Houthis intensified in the central province of Marib and the western province of Hodeidah, state media said on Monday.
In the province of Marib, the government’s Executive Unit for IDP Camps said that nine displaced people, including seven women, were wounded when a barrage of shells and rockets fired by the Houthis ripped through three displacement camps in the province on Sunday. 
The unit urged the UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths and international aid organizations to pressure the Houthis to stop attacking the camps in Marib.
It said that more than 17,000 people had been displaced from homes and camps since last month, when the Houthis launched a major offensive to capture Marib city.
“We demand all human rights and humanitarian organizations and the relevant authorities to visit the (targeted) camps to document violations,” the unit added.
Fighting also broke out in the Red Sea city of Hodeidah, where government forces repulsed a Houthi attack at Kilo 16, which links the city with Sanaa.


Israel military says three projectiles fired from north Gaza

Updated 7 sec ago
Follow

Israel military says three projectiles fired from north Gaza

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it identified three projectiles fired from the northern Gaza Strip that crossed into Israel on Monday, the latest in a series of launches from the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
“One projectile was intercepted by the IAF (air force), one fell in Sderot and another projectile fell in an open area. No injuries were reported,” the military said in a statement.

Sudan army air strike kills 10 in southern Khartoum: rescuers

Updated 35 min 46 sec ago
Follow

Sudan army air strike kills 10 in southern Khartoum: rescuers

  • Strike targeted a market area of the capital’s Southern Belt ‘for the third time in less than a month’
  • War between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary forces has killed tens of thousands of people

PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Ten Sudanese civilians were killed and over 30 wounded in an army air strike on southern Khartoum, volunteer rescue workers said.
The strike on Sunday targeted a market area of the capital’s Southern Belt “for the third time in less than a month,” said the local Emergency Response Room (ERR), part of a network of volunteers across the country coordinating frontline aid.
The group said those killed burned to death. The wounded, suffering from burns, were taken to the local Bashair Hospital, with five of them in a critical condition.
Since April 2023, the war between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands of people.
In the capital alone, the violence killed 26,000 people between April 2023 and June 2024, according to a report by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Khartoum has experienced some of the war’s worst violence, with entire neighborhoods emptied out and taken over by fighters.
The military, which maintains a monopoly on the skies with its jets, has not managed to wrest back control of the capital from the paramilitary.
Of the 11.5 million people currently displaced within Sudan, nearly a third have fled from the capital, according to United Nations figures.
Both the RSF and the army have been repeatedly accused of targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.


Israel says Hamas has not given ‘status of hostages’ it says ready to free

Updated 06 January 2025
Follow

Israel says Hamas has not given ‘status of hostages’ it says ready to free

  • A Hamas official gave a list of 34 hostages the group was ready to free

JERUSALEM: Israel said on Monday that Hamas had so far not provided the status of the 34 hostages the group declared it was ready to release in the first phase of a potential exchange deal.
“As yet, Israel has not received any confirmation or comment by Hamas regarding the status of the hostages appearing on the list,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement after a Hamas official gave a list of 34 hostages the group was ready to free in the first phase.


Shooting attack on a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank kills 3

Updated 06 January 2025
Follow

Shooting attack on a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank kills 3

  • The attack occurred in the Palestinian village of Al-Funduq, on one of the main east-west roads crossing the territory

JERUSALEM: A shooting attack on a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank killed at least three people and wounded seven others on Monday, Israeli medics said.
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said those killed included two women in their 60s and a man in his 40s.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza ignited the ongoing war there.
The attack occurred in the Palestinian village of Al-Funduq, on one of the main east-west roads crossing the territory. The identities of the attackers and those killed were not immediately known. The military said it was looking for the attackers, who fled.
Palestinians have carried out scores of shooting, stabbing and car-ramming attacks against Israelis in recent years. Israel has launched near-nightly military raids across the territory that frequently trigger gunbattle with militants.
The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least 835 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.
Some 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority administering population centers. Over 500,000 Israeli settlers live in scores of settlements, which most of the international community considers illegal.
Meanwhile, the war in Gaza is raging with no end in sight, though there has reportedly been recent progress in long-running talks aimed at a ceasefire and hostage release.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border in a massive surprise attack nearly 15 months ago, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed over 45,800 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health authorities, who say women and children make up more than half of those killed. They do not say how many of the dead were militants. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced 90 percent of the territory’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands are enduring a cold, rainy winter in tent camps along the windy coast. At least seven infants have died of hypothermia because of the harsh conditions, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Aid groups say Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order in many areas make it difficult to provide desperately needed food and other assistance.


New Syria foreign minister begins first visit to UAE: state media

Updated 06 January 2025
Follow

New Syria foreign minister begins first visit to UAE: state media

Damascus: Syria’s new foreign minister Asaad Al-Shaibani landed in the United Arab Emirates Monday on his first visit to the country since rebels toppled president Bashar Assad last month, official news agency SANA said.
“Shaibani, accompanied by defense minister Murhaf Abu Qasra and intelligence chief Anas Khattab, has arrived in the United Arab Emirates,” SANA reported.
Shaibani also posted a picture of himself on X stepping off a plane, and said he looked forward “to building constructive bilateral relations.”
The officials took office after Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus in early December, toppling Assad after more than 13 years of civil war.
Their trip to the UAE comes after they visited its Gulf neighbors Qatar on Sunday and Saudi Arabia last week.
Both Qatar and Turkiye, which backed the anti-Assad opposition, reopened their embassies in Damascus in the aftermath of Assad’s flight to Moscow.
Turkiye has long maintained a working relationship with the HTS rebels, leaving it with a direct line to Damascus.