First aid flight in three years leaves Yemen's capital
February 3, 2020
The Amman-bound flight carrying eight patients in need of urgent medical care was permitted after years of negotiations. They could mark a step towards ending the five-year war that has displaced millions.
Image: Reuters/K. Abdullah
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A United Nations flight carrying Yemeni patients in critical need of medical care left the country's rebel-held capital Sanaa on Monday, in the first such aid flight in over three years.
Eight patients and their relatives took off on a flight from Sanaa to Amman after years of negotiations, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The WHO said the medical operation is expected to continue with another three flights this week, bound for Amman and Cairo and carrying a total of 30 patients.
Most of the patients on the first flight include "women and children who suffer from conditions such as aggressive forms of cancer and brain tumors, or who need organ transplants and reconstructive surgeries," the WHO tweeted.
"This is the first of what we hope will be a number of flights in the medical air bridge," UN Resident Coordinator for Yemen Lisa Grande told AFP news agency.
Saudi Arabia controls Yemen's airspace and has prevented any flights from leaving the capital since August 2016.
In November, Yemen's internationally recognized government, backed by a Saudi-led military coalition, agreed to allow patients to be flown out of Sanaa. The coalition has been fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels since 2014.
The Health Ministry belonging to the Houthis, which control the Yemeni capital, criticized the UN's move to only take eight patients, however. They said in a statement that the UN had initially agreed to airlift 30 patients, but used one of its own aircraft with a smaller capacity insted of using a larger plane belonging to Yemen's national airline.
The ministry said that 32,000 people are in need of urgent medical treatment.
The resumption of flights "comes too late for thousands of Yemenis who died waiting to leave the country for urgent life-saving care ... Many more are still waiting to get the health care they need," said the Norwegian Refugee Council representative in Yemen, Mohammed Abdi in a statement.
However, the UN has touted the move as a positive step towards calm in Yemen.
"It is clear there are literally thousands of patients who haven't received the treatment they need because of the blockade," said Grande. "With the first flight we've opened the door."
The move to allow the medical flights was widely seen as a confidence-building measured aimed at ending the five-year war that has killed thousands and displaced millions in what the UN has dubbed the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
The flights are also a possible step towards reopening the capital's airport, which is one of the top UN priorities in the region and a key demand of the Houthis.
Yemen has been steeped in conflict since the Houthis ousted the government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi from Sanaa in late 2014. A Saudi-led military coalition stepped in in 2015 to try to restore Hadi's leadership.
lc/ng (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)
Yemen: An ever-worsening crisis
Yemen has struggled to cope with crises prompted by its atrocious civil war, including catastrophic hunger and devastating cholera outbreaks. DW examines the conflict and how it affects the country's civilian population.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
War: The 'root cause' of Yemen's disasters
The UN has identified conflict as the "root cause" of Yemen's crises. Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the war erupted in 2014, when Shiite Houthi rebels launched a campaign to capture the capital, Sanaa. In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launched a deadly campaign against the rebels, one that has been widely criticized by human rights groups for its high civilian death toll.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
Fighting keeps food from the famished
The conflict has prevented humanitarian aid from reaching large parts of the civilian population, resulting in more than two-thirds of the country's 28 million people being classified as "food insecure." Nearly 3 million children and pregnant or nursing women are acutely malnourished, according to the UN World Food Program.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
Displacement: Converging crises
More than 3 million people have been displaced by conflict, including marginalized communities such as the "Muhammasheen," a minority tribe that originally migrated from Africa. Despite the civil war, many flee conflict in Somalia and head to Yemen, marking the convergence of two major migration crises in the Middle East nation. Yemen hosts around 250,000 Somali refugees, according to UNHCR.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
Cholera: A deadly epidemic
The number of suspected cholera cases has exceeded more than 2 million and least 3,700 people have died from the waterborne bacterial infection in Yemen since October 2019, said the WHO. Although cholera can be easily treated, it can kill within hours when untreated.
Image: Reuters/K. Abdullah
Unsuspecting victims of the'war on terror'
In Yemen, violence goes beyond civil conflict: It is considered a strategic front in the war on terrorism. The country serves as the operational base for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, dubbed the "most dangerous" terrorist group before the rise of the "Islamic State." The US routinely uses drones to target al-Qaida leadership. However, civilians have often been killed in the operations.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Y. Arhab
Children's fate: Future marred by tragedy
In a country paralyzed by conflict, children are one of the most at-risk groups in Yemen. More than 12 million children require humanitarian aid, according to the UN humanitarian coordination agency. The country's education system is "on the brink of collapse," while children are dying of "preventable causes like malnutrition, diarrhea and respiratory tract infections," according to the agency.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
Peace: An elusive future
Despite several attempts at UN-backed peace talks, the conflict continues to rage on. Saudi Arabia has vowed to continue supporting the internationally recognized government of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. On the other hand, Houthi rebels have demanded the formation of a unity government in order to move forward on a political solution. A peace deal, however, remains elusive.
