The United Nations (UN) on Monday (February 3rd) evacuated seven sick children by air from the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, controlled by Houthi rebels. A first since 2016, Sanaa Airport has been closed to commercial flights since that year.
Seven children, who "Suffer from illnesses that cannot be treated in Yemen"according to Lise Grande, the UN’s country coordinator, boarded a plane bound for Amman. There, the patients and their family members then headed, in a minibus, to hospitals in the Jordanian capital.
"This is a very important day. This is the first of what we hope will be a number of flights from the medical airlift. ", said Agence France-Presse (AFP) Mme Big. She said she was working on the establishment "An airlift with the parties for two years" and consider the evacuation of the seven children as "A major step forward" and "A sign of hope for Yemen".
A spokeswoman for the World Health Organization (WHO) told AFP that other flights had been scheduled for February 4, 5 and 7, bound for Jordan and Egypt, without specify the number of patients concerned.
World's worst humanitarian crisis
The conflict in this poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula has caused the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, according to the United Nations. He pits the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who captured Sanaa in 2014 against government forces supported by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia. After months of relative calm, clashes between rebels and Yemeni government forces resumed last month.
In November, the Saudi-led coalition, which controls Yemen’s airspace, announced that patients in need of medical treatment would be allowed to leave Sana'a airport.
Last month, UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths announced that 30 Yemeni patients would be evacuated for treatment. "Medical care not available in Yemen".
According to various humanitarian organizations, the war in Yemen has claimed tens of thousands of lives, mostly civilians, since the 2015 intervention of Riyadh and its coalition. About 3.3 million people are still displaced and 24.1 million, more than two-thirds of the population, are in need of assistance, according to the United Nations.
