Daijiworld Media Network - Aden
Aden, May 4: Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) has named Finance Minister Salem Saleh Bin Braik as the country’s new Prime Minister, following the sudden resignation of Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak.
The move, confirmed by the state-run Saba news agency, comes as Yemen grapples with deepening political and economic instability. Bin Braik, a seasoned financial expert who has served as Finance Minister since 2019, will now take the reins of a fragile government operating from the southern city of Aden.
Outgoing Prime Minister bin Mubarak cited constitutional limitations and persistent institutional hurdles as key reasons behind his resignation, stating they prevented him from enacting much-needed reforms and reshuffling his cabinet.
“I was denied the ability to exercise my constitutional powers to reform key state institutions,” he said, adding that these constraints had stalled progress during his brief tenure, which began in February 2024.
While bin Mubarak has been reassigned as an advisor to the PLC President, the rest of the cabinet will remain in their current posts, according to the official decree.
Yemen’s leadership change comes at a time of acute crisis. The national currency, the Yemeni rial, is in free fall, worsening economic hardship across a country already devastated by years of war and deemed by the United Nations as facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.
The government’s financial woes have been compounded by a halt in oil exports — a key revenue source — since October 2022. The export freeze followed a series of Houthi attacks on oil infrastructure. The Houthis demand that any future oil revenue be shared in a way that ensures public sector salaries are paid across all regions, including those under their control.
Yemen has been locked in civil war since 2014, when Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognised government to relocate to Aden. Despite several international peace efforts, the conflict continues to fragment the country.