Yemen appoints new prime minister after cabinet resigned, council says

Yemen has appointed Salem Saleh Bin Braikas, who served as finance minister in the previous cabinet, as prime minister, the presidential council said in a statement on Saturday.

Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, prime minister of Yemen’s internationally recognised government, said he had resigned after facing “many difficulties” including being unable to reshuffle the government.

He had clashed with Rashad Al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s presidential council, over his powers after the latter refused Mubarak’s request to dismiss 12 of the government’s ministers, six government sources told Reuters.

Mubarak was appointed premier in February 2024 after serving as foreign minister. He came to prominence in 2015 when he was kidnapped by Houthi militiamen while serving as Yemen’s presidential chief of staff during the Houthis’ conflict with then-president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The U.S. has been intensifying airstrikes to destroy Houthi military assets and deter the Iran-aligned Houthis, who control most of Yemen including its main population centres in the north and west, from targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

The deadly strikes on the group since March have been the biggest U.S. military operation in the Middle East since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January.

Yemen has been embroiled in civil war for over a decade. The Houthis seized Sanaa in 2014 and ousted the recognised government, forcing it to relocate to the southern port of Aden.