File photo showing bank customers wait to withdraw Yemeni currency at the Central Bank in Sanaa on August 25, 2016.

:: Yemen’s internationally recognized government has reopened the local branch of the Central Bank in the southwestern city of Taiz for the first time since war broke out in early 2015, Yemeni al-Masdar Online news website reported on Monday

The website said that the bank’s reopening gave hope to “thousands” of government employees and residents in the city that they would receive salaries that had not been paid since late 2016.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Civil Service Abdul Aziz Jabari, who attended the ceremony as part of a government delegation, described the reopening as “the most important step” in returning government control over financial and other institutions in the city, according to Saba news agency.

Afflicted with war that has plunged the country into what the United Nations has called the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II, thousands of professionals in Yemen have endured the war without an income in over a year.