PLC member Abdullah al-Alimi meets British Ambassador Abda Sharif on security and aid
Yemen Herald News 
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Presidential Leadership Council member Abdullah al-Alimi met Britain’s ambassador to Yemen, Abda Sharif, on Thursday to discuss maritime security and British aid, the state news agency Saba said.
Saba published its account of the meeting on Oct. 1.
The agency said the two discussed bilateral relations, developments inside Yemen and international efforts to support the government.
The account of the talks rests on Saba. No independent confirmation has been published, and the British embassy had issued no account of the meeting at the time of writing.
Al-Alimi said cooperation should be developed in maritime security, counterterrorism and work against smuggling, according to the agency.
He named the coast guard, the armed forces and the security services as areas where Yemen wanted help building capacity.
He also pointed to networks involved in arms and drug smuggling and in illicit financing, Saba said.
The two discussed conditions for people displaced by the recent fighting, the agency reported.
Al-Alimi attributed that displacement to attacks on cities, ports and economic facilities by the Houthis, whom he described as terrorist militias. The Houthis reject that characterisation.
He praised Britain’s support for the Yemeni government and for the Saudi-led coalition, which Saba calls the Coalition to Support Legitimacy.
Al-Alimi thanked the United Kingdom for development and humanitarian support and referred to aid announced in recent weeks, Saba said.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office announced 10 million pounds in new humanitarian funding for Yemen on Sept. 25.
Stephen Doughty, the minister for the Middle East, announced the package.
It gives 5.5 million pounds to the World Food Programme, 3.5 million pounds to UNICEF and 1 million pounds to the International Organization for Migration.
The department said the money would pay for nutrition assistance for 30,000 children.
It said 35,000 women and children would gain access to emergency health care, and that 10,000 children would receive vaccines.
The department said the funding followed what it described as Houthi escalation.
It said more than 130,000 Yemenis were estimated to have been displaced after that escalation.
Britain told the Security Council in June that it had provided more than 190 million dollars towards the humanitarian response in Yemen.
Sharif said her country would continue to support the Presidential Leadership Council and the Yemeni government, according to Saba.
She said Britain wanted to work with regional and international partners on security and stability in Yemen and the region, the agency reported.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office named Sharif as His Majesty’s ambassador to Yemen.
Al-Alimi sits on the Presidential Leadership Council, the eight-member body formed in April 2022 to which President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi transferred his powers.
The council was formed on April 7, 2022.
He is not the council’s chairman, Rashad al-Alimi.
The meeting followed a week of fighting in Taiz governorate.
UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg said on Thursday that he was alarmed by developments in Taiz, where fighting had intensified.
Grundberg said civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected.
He said the reports reaching his office on casualties, damage to infrastructure and road closures were deeply troubling.
Grundberg said every effort must be made to prevent further harm and to ensure safe and unhindered access to people in need.
He said he remained in contact with the government and the Houthis over efforts to contain the fighting.
His statement cited figures showing nearly 147,000 people displaced across Yemen between Sept. 1 and Sept. 18.
Taiz took in more than 80,000 of them.
Taiz is Yemen’s third-largest city.
The International Organization for Migration has since put displacement at more than 149,000 people, drawn mostly from Taiz and Lahj governorates.
Houthi forces took the Red Sea port of Mokha last month.
Mokha sits on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, north of the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Taiz lies about 100 kilometres from Mokha and links Houthi-held areas in the north with government-held territory in the south and the Red Sea coast.
Government warplanes carried out dozens of airstrikes on Houthi positions on the outskirts of Taiz city, The National reported on Friday.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the Saudi-led coalition had carried out 47 attacks in 24 hours.
The coalition said it intercepted two ballistic missiles and four drones over cities in southern Saudi Arabia on Thursday.
Neither account has been independently confirmed.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its March plan that more than 22 million people in Yemen needed assistance.
It put the number of acutely food insecure people at 18.3 million.
It said more than 2.2 million children under five were acutely malnourished, including 516,157 with severe acute malnutrition.
The office recorded 5.2 million internally displaced people and sought 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million of them.
Matthew Hollingworth of the World Food Programme said the effect of the latest flare-up threatened to be “absolutely devastating”.
The programme has said 74 percent of Yemeni households cannot meet their basic food needs.
Yemen’s war began in 2014, when Houthi forces took Sanaa. A truce agreed in 2022 has since broken down.
Yemen Herald found no public Houthi response to the meeting.
Saba did not say whether other officials attended.
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