ADEN: A sharp rise in the currency of Yemen on Thursday following a $2 billion Saudi bailout sparked hope of relief for millions at risk of famine and reliant on imported food.

For more than a year, the government has been unable to pay salaries and the riyal has more than halved in value against the dollar, leaving Yemenis unable to afford food staples and bottled water.

But after Saudi Arabia announced a massive cash injection in the central bank, the Yemeni currency rose 16 per cent against the dollar on Thursday.

Riyadh’s decision on Wednesday to transfer $2 billion to the central bank to boost the riyal followed a desperate plea for help by Yemen’s president and prime minister.

“As the value of the riyal goes up, the living conditions of Yemeni citizens will change for the better,” the Saudi information ministry said.

Yemen’s riyal stood at 215 to the dollar in early 2015.

After Saudi Arabia and its allies entered the fight against the Iran-backed Houthi militants in March of that year, the riyal began to plummet, dropping to 500 against the dollar by 2018.

Money changers across the country — including in the rebel-held capital Sanaa and the government bastion of Aden — reported the dollar trading at between 420 and 450 riyals on Thursday.

The Saudi-backed government has now capped the exchange rate against the dollar at 390 riyals.

More than one million civil servants lost their jobs in 2016, when President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi transferred the central bank from Sanaa to his hometown of Aden.