Saudi Arabia to supply Yemen, African states with COVID vaccine‏

Saudi Arabia’s finance minister said on Tuesday his country was talking to manufacturers to provide COVID-19 vaccines to low-income countries including Yemen and African states.

“We are negotiating with a lot of the vaccination companies to provide more vaccinations particularly to low income countries,” Mohammed al-Jadaan told the virtual World Economic Forum in Davos.

Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition that has been fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi group in Yemen since early 2015.

Jadaan said Yemen and some African nations would not be able to get enough vaccines through the COVAX facility – the global pooled procurement mechanism for COVID-19 vaccines.

The COVAX programme aims to help Yemen reach 20% of its high-risk population with donated vaccines.