Yemen's main donors were meeting here Saturday on how best to deploy billions of dollars to strengthen the Sanaa government and stem the rise of violent extremism in the Arabian peninsula country.
Officials from the six Gulf Cooperation Council members, Yemen's largest financial backers, and also from other major international donors began two-day talks at the GCC headquarters on helping fix the economy of the Arab world's poorest country, a GCC official said.
The problem of the dysfunctionality of the Yemen government is a deep structural problem which has to do with the concentration of power
At issue is finding remedies to Yemen's deteriorating economy and political stability, and ways to speed up the flow and impact of foreign aid to the country.
But donor representatives at the meeting are not expected to make new commitments in aid, instead figuring out what has gone wrong with earlier pledges.
In November 2006, donors pledged $4.7 billion to help the government of Yemen but less than 10 percent of that amount has so far been deployed.
Donors say that President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government lacks the capacity to absorb and make efficient use of the funds on offer, and also complain that significant parts of disbursed aid is lost to corruption.
"Nothing can be done quickly" to help Yemen's economy, said Abdulghani al-Iryani, an independent Yemeni development consultant.
"The problem of the dysfunctionality of the Yemen government is a deep structural problem which has to do with the concentration of power," he said.
The GCC members -- Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates -- are the biggest supporters of Yemen.
Saudi Arabia especially views the frail economy of its southern neighbor as a security threat, feeding the rise of the the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in the past two years and the resurgence of rebel movements that have spilled over into Saudi territory.
State of emergency
The move is aimed at securing the lives of citizens and maintaining provincial security and stability after reports of the entry of armed elements to the municipality to carry out conspiratorial plots, disturb the peace and harm the public interest
Meanwhile Yemeni authorities declared a state of emergency in a southern provincial capital on Saturday, citing the possibility of separatist attacks two days after a policeman was shot dead in an ambush in a nearby province.
Yemen said separatists killed the officer in south Yemen on Thursday, bringing to four the number of people killed in attacks on southern security men in a week as authorities also mounted sweeps targeting separatists.
A government official said the state of emergency in the city of Dalea was "to guard against acts of violence that outlaws are intent on carrying out in the city". He spoke in language Sanaa typically uses to refer to separatists.
"(The move) is aimed at securing the lives of citizens and maintaining provincial security and stability after reports of the entry of armed elements to the municipality to carry out conspiratorial plots, disturb the peace and harm the public interest," the official told Reuters, declining to be named.
People in south Yemen, home to most Yemeni oil facilities, complain that northerners have abused a 1990 agreement uniting the country to grab resources and discriminate against them.
Tension has flared in recent weeks in the south after a separatist protester was killed on Feb. 13 when police opened fire at a demonstration. Six others were injured.
Police later clashed with demonstrators who came to claim the protester's body, igniting a week of unrest in which separatists burned northern-owned shops and tried to block a road linking Lahj province to the main southern city of Aden.
Security officials have since launched sweeps in which at least 130 people were arrested across four southern provinces including Dalea. Government officials said a curfew would be imposed in Dalea from dusk as part of measures imposed under the state of emergency.
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