UAE aid shipment arrives in Yemen

Yemen has received the first part of 500,000 tonnes of wheat donated by the UAE. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, President of the UAE, ordered that the wheat be given to the country, which was hit by devastating floods in October, as a humanitarian gesture. Seventy thousand tonnes were unloaded earlier this week at the country's Al Salif seaport, in the west of the country, according to the state news agency WAM.

Dr Yahya al Mutawakel, Yemen's minister of industry and trade, was quoted as saying the gift reflected the "historical bilateral bonds" between the two countries. A committee headed by Numan al Suhaibi, the Yemeni finance minister, will oversee the distribution of the wheat to about 1.5 million people. Yemen's ministry of presidential affairs is co-ordinating efforts to ensure it is distributed fairly.

Abdulla Mattar al Mazrouei, the UAE Ambassador to Yemen, was quoted as saying he hoped the donation, just one of several UAE aid projects in Yemen, would improve the lives of underprivileged Yemenis. In December, a convoy of lorries carrying 115 tonnes of relief assistance including food, blankets and winter clothes arrived in Yemen courtesy of the UAE Red Crescent Authority. Sheikh Khalifa has also ordered that 1,000 homes be built in Yemen to replace mud brick dwellings destroyed in the floods.