DUBAI: Yemen’s central bank has complained to its allies in a Saudi-led military coalition about a lack of cash deliveries needed to pay salaries, in a sign of the government’s struggle to keep the war-torn country’s economy afloat.

There are two opposing central banks in Yemen – an internationally recognized one in the southern city of Aden and another in the capital Sanaa in territory run by the government’s foes in the armed Houthi movement.

Both suffer from depleted reserves but play a key role in mitigating widespread famine and disease, after two years of fighting, by paying some public sector salaries.

But the Aden bank said in a statement late Saturday that the Saudi-led coalition had not given landing permits for air shipments of cash 13 times for unknown reasons – in a rare airing of a grievance by the government to its main backer.

“The [bank] faces extreme difficulties ... because of the hindrance in delivering these funds by air to Aden airport by the coalition for unknown reasons,” the bank said.

“This creates dangerous strangulation for the Yemeni economy in providing liquidity for the crisis,” it added. It did not say which currency the deliveries would be.

Saudi Arabia and its mostly Gulf Arab allies control Yemen’s air space, a measure they say aims to prevent Iran delivering arms shipments to the Houthis – a charge the Houthis deny.

Forces loyal to President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi wrested Aden and several southern provinces from the Houthis in the summer of 2015 but have struggled to impose stability and the government still operates mostly from exile in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Militants and gunmen continue to operate in many southern areas, and banks in Aden closed for three days in protest last month after a spate of armed robberies.

Meanwhile, Houthis and the coalition Saturday gave conflicting accounts of a Houthi attempt to attack shipping in the Red Sea port of Mokha.

The Houthi-controlled state news agency SABA said that the Houthi navy targeted and hit a warship belonging to the coalition inside the seaport.

The coalition spokesman, Col. Turki al-Malki, said the Houthis attempted to attack the Mokha port in the early hours of Saturday, using a remote-controlled boat packed with explosives.

“The coalition forces detected the boat 3 miles off the port, while it was sailing at 39 knots, and was intercepted by the coalition defense and diverted from its initial trajectory,” Malki said in a statement sent to Reuters.

He did not give further details.

The attack would raise further concerns for shipping in the narrow Bab al-Mandab Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea, a major choke point in the world oil trade.

Incidents are frequent there. Last month, unknown assailants attacked an oil tanker and fired rocket-propelled grenades before breaking off their assault.

The war in Yemen has already killed more than 10,000 and displaced millions, with around 500,000 cholera cases reported in the country since the worst outbreak in decades started in April.