Minister of Health: Not a Single Patient Traveled, After Two Weeks of UN Sponsored Truce

On Apr 20, 2022

Minister of Public Health and Population, Dr. Taha Al-Mutawakel, confirmed that “not a single patient has traveled despite the passage of two weeks of truce,” and that the US-Saudi aggression continues to delay the opening of Sana’a Int. Airport.

The Minister of Health stressed that the US-Saudi aggression continues its piracy of fuel ships, so that the suffering continues in hospitals and health centers. He indicated that 525 hospitals and health centers were directly destroyed during the years of aggression and the siege, noting that through the siege, the US-Saudi aggression aimed to disrupt the provision of medical services that continued to operate in the conditions of aggression.

He explained that 98% of the quality devices for the medical sector in Yemen have exceeded their lifespan, and a number of them are out of readiness.

Taha Al-Mutawakel stressed that the Ministry of Health’s basic strategy is directed towards the countryside to provide medical services and save the citizen the hassle of transportation.

In early April, the UN envoy to Yemen announced a UN-sponsored humanitarian truce for a period of two months. The truce, meant to halt all military operations in the country and bring the foreign military invasion to an end, came into effect on April 2.

The deal stipulates halting offensive military operations, including cross-border attacks, and allowing fuel-laden ships to enter Yemen’s lifeline al-Hudaydah port and commercial flights in and out of the airport in the capital Sana’a “to predetermined destinations in the region.”

Two weeks has passed for the entry into effect of the humanitarian and military truce brokered by the UN, but without significant progress.

The airport is still deserted and has not received any flights, in light of the obstacles created by the coalition of aggression. The past weeks was supposed to witness at least two commercial flights to and from Sana’a International Airport.

Well-informed sources in Sana’a say that there are complications by the aggression side, in light of its insistence on taking over the issuance of passports and visas.

The matter also applies to the port of Hodeidah. While the countries of aggression were supposed to facilitate the smooth flow of ships to the port, under the truce, the inspecting ships are still subject to inspection, and are detained off the coast of Jizan despite obtaining UN permits and licenses.

On the ground, the fires of the aggression side did not subside along the fronts, on the borders and inside. Shelling, reconnaissance, development and crawl, including a failed advance carried out by mercenaries towards Army and Popular Committee sites south of Marib.

All indicators do not serve the steadfastness of the humanitarian and military truce, and provide evidence that Sana’a continues to exercise restraint, in the face of heterogeneous parties that do not abide or respect their commitments to a truce sponsored by the UN.