WASHINGTON — The United States is sharply increasing both military and economic aid to Yemen, as it has been doing in Afghanistan and Pakistan, to fight a growing threat from Al-Qaeda, officials said Wednesday.
The threat has been highlighted by the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man who reportedly confessed to being trained by an Al-Qaeda bomb maker in Yemen for his mission to blow up a US-bound jet.
"To a certain extent you can argue that the airline incident on Christmas day brought attention, public attention to Yemen," a senior State Department official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.
But "certainly within this government and certainly other governments around the world... we have been quite sensitive to what's happening in Yemen," the official said.
"Over the last year or so, there has been a renewed focus on what can we do, how can we really speed up the process and have... quick impact programs that will allow people to see changes in their life," the official said.
In the 2010 fiscal year, US development and security assistance to Yemen is expected to rise to 63 million dollars from a total of 40.3 million dollars in the 2009 fiscal year, another State Department official said.
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