AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s army has begun paying soldiers’ salaries directly into their personal bank accounts, in what officials describe as a landmark reform aimed at curbing corruption, eliminating ghost soldiers and ending a longstanding system that allowed commanders and intermediaries to control military payrolls.
Army officials and soldiers told Arab News during the past two days that troops received their latest salaries in person through local banks or money exchange firms in government-controlled areas for the first time in years. “This system is excellent because salaries are transferred directly from the Ministry of Defense into each soldier’s bank account, allowing them to collect their pay from any branch of the banks,” Mohammed, an army soldier who asked to be identified by his first name, told Arab News.
For years, Mohammed, like tens of thousands of Yemeni soldiers, received his salary through the commander of his military unit, who collected payroll funds from the central bank and distributed them to troops. Soldiers have long complained that commanders deducted varying percentages from their salaries, while some individuals collected multiple salaries under different names. Military officials and analysts have also said that “ghost soldiers” — fictitious or inactive personnel added to payrolls — enabled some commanders to siphon off public funds.
On Aug. 4, Yemeni Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Taher Al‑Aqili announced the end of the old payment mechanism used in the country’s armed forces, declaring that all soldiers would now receive their salaries in person through local financial institutions.
In posts on his social media accounts, Al‑Aqili said: “A new mechanism has been adopted for disbursing the salaries of military units, which stipulates that salaries will not be transferred to the accounts of unit commanders or their representatives, and that they will be disbursed directly to their beneficiaries personally.”
He said the measures were intended to “promote integrity, establish fairness in salary payments and protect the rights of members of the armed forces.”
But the reform has faced resistance from some military commanders who benefited from the old payment system. According to the defense minister, certain commanders refused to implement the new mechanism, verbally attacked the military leadership, and even threatened to withdraw their forces from frontline positions in an attempt to pressure the ministry into abandoning the reform.
“Unfortunately, some unit commanders refused to comply with these directives, and some even went so far as to insult and use inappropriate language against the leadership, while others sought to use the situation on the front lines as a pretext for pressure and blackmail,” Al‑Aqili said.
According to a military circular shared with Arab News by a soldier, troops were given one week to collect their salaries from local banks or risk being withdrawn back to Aden.
Army officials said the leadership had taken several measures in recent months to pave the way for implementing the new payment mechanism. Soldiers were first required to issue new smart identification cards and undergo biometric fingerprinting. Committees of army officers then moved from one unit to another, verifying and auditing names, and removing those of deceased, retired or wounded soldiers.
Brig. Gen. Mohammed Al‑Kumaim, an adviser to the defense minister, told Arab News that the reform aims to combat financial and administrative corruption, and promote good governance in Yemen. It also intends to reduce duplicate names and inflated payrolls, as well as end the practice of some commanders sharing salaries with soldiers, he added.
“This is a sound decision. I believe this mechanism should have been implemented long ago, in both the civilian and military sectors. This is a problem that the Yemeni armed forces have faced for a long time, even during the previous regime,” he said.
One of the rationales offered by armed commanders for deducting salaries from their personnel is the lack of separate financial budgets to cover operational needs such as fuel for vehicles, food or military uniforms. To address this problem, Al‑Kumaim called for allocating dedicated operational budgets to military units. “The issue of operational budgets for these combat units must be addressed. This is a very important problem and will eliminate any excuses for commanders to embezzle or deduct part of the salary,” he said.
He even blamed setbacks sustained by Yemeni army troops in their fight against the Houthis on corruption within the military apparatus. “One of the main reasons for the armed forces’ defeats in the past was that the number of brigades on the payrolls was in the thousands, but in reality, there were only hundreds. The embezzlement of salaries negatively impacts the morale of troops on the ground,” Al‑Kumaim said.
At the same time, soldiers who welcomed the new payment mechanism as a step toward addressing corruption also demanded further reforms — chief among them timely and improved salaries. One soldier told Arab News that the last salary he received was in April. It amounted to less than 60,000 Yemeni riyals ($40), a figure that has not increased for years.
“I like the idea of receiving my salary directly from the defense ministry, but salaries should be increased and paid on time,” said the soldier, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
