The Yemeni riyal fell to a new low of 1,540 against the dollar in Yemeni government-governed provinces on Saturday. Media reports said the Yemeni riyal breached a record low of 1,500 against the dollar for the first time in years, compared to a prior low of 1,400 in July. Since early 2022, the Yemeni riyal has stabilized at about 1,200 per dollar in government-run territories, boosted by Saudi Arabia’s cash injection into Yemen’s Aden-based central bank. Saudi Arabia’s $1.2 billion funding aid helped the Yemeni riyal to recover to 1,300 per dollar in early August, up from 1,400 in July. The Yemeni riyal began depreciating in 2014 as the political turbulence in the country kept magnifying. In early 2015, the riyal was trading at 215 per dollar. But today, the $1 equals about 1500 Yemeni riyals in government-run areas and 530 Yemeni riyals in Houthi-controlled provinces. The nine years of conflict have ruined the country’s economy and devalued the national currency.
Armed clashes broke out on Saturday between tribal groups in Shabwa province in South Yemen, local sources said. The clashes erupted between the Al-Sulaiman tribe and the Al-Hamad tribe in Al-Musaina district because of a land dispute. According to the sources, no deaths were reported in the clashes, but tensions still exist, and confrontations may resume. Shabwah province has experienced security chaos since the southern separatists’ takeover of the province in 2021.
On Saturday, the Yemeni Mine Observatory announced that three women were injured and two cars were damaged in a landmine explosion in Al-Bayda province in central Yemen. The Observatory said that three women were injured as a result of a landmine explosion that occurred in the Al-Jabra area of Radman District in Al-Bayda, which is highly contaminated by mines. The warring sides in Yemen planted thousands of landmines since the breakout of the war in 2015.
On Saturday, Arab leaders pushed for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that such a move would be counterproductive and could encourage more violence by the militant group. After an afternoon of talks with Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi, Qatari and Emirati diplomats and a senior Palestinian official, Blinken stood side by side at a line of podiums with his counterparts from Jordan and Egypt to discuss what he said was their shared desire to protect civilians in Gaza and improve aid flows to the besieged territory. The Arab ministers repeatedly called for the fighting to stop now and condemned Israel’s war tactics. However, Blinken said, “It is our view now that a cease-fire would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did.”
