Yemenis Dying While Waiting for 1st Flight of UN-sponsored Truce from Sana’a Airport

Forty-three days have passed since the humanitarian truce entered into effect in Yemen, yet, the operation of the first commercial flight from Sana’a airport is announced on Monday, as the US-Saudi aggression continued to obstruct the opening of Sana’a Airport. The time that arouses optimism for some was a time of death for patients who were killed by waiting.

The announcement was made by the Minister of Transport in the Sana’a government, Abdulwahab Al-Durra, on Sunday evening, explaining that the first commercial flight from Sana’a International Airport will be to Jordan, and return on the same day, via Yemeni Airlines.

Al-Durra stressed that there is no objection or decision from the United Nations that prevents the continuation of commercial flights from Sana’a airport on a permanent basis without linking them to the humanitarian truce. Yemeni citizens have the right to travel from the nearest airports to him, especially since the United Nations inspects and monitors flights.

The Minister of Transport indicated the keenness to facilitate all procedures for travelers and provide the best navigation services with high technical and professional efficiency. He praised the efforts of the cadres working at Sana’a Airport, who worked with high professionalism and impartiality in providing their services.

The opening of Sana’a International Airport is a humanitarian necessity to save the lives of millions of sick and stranded Yemenis outside Yemen and to get rid of the suffering that the citizen is exposed to while traveling through the airports in the occupied governorates.

The airport represents a vital artery for travelers and humanitarian relief flights, as it is in the middle of the Yemeni governorates with a majority population, which serves more than 80 percent of the population of Yemen.

According to observers, the continued closure of Sana’a Airport turned Yemen into a large prison and created a human tragedy that exceeded all descriptions. It caused the almost complete suspension of commercial shipments such as medicines, medical supplies and equipment coming into the country, especially with the continued restrictions imposed on the port of Hodeidah. This led to a doubling of the prices of medicines that most Yemenis are now unable to afford, which further contributed to the deterioration of the health system.

Although the humanitarian truce announced by the United Nations is about to end, and its provisions stipulated the opening of Sana’a Airport to humanitarian and commercial flights, the airport is still closed to patients. The closure caused the death of 12 patients within 30 days since the start of the UN truce, while they are waiting for the alleged flights promised by the United Nations and the coalition, according to the Chairman of the Supreme Medical Committee, Dr. Mutahar Al-Darwish.

Meanwhile, the official spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Sana’a, Dr. Anis Al-Asbahi, confirmed that about 30,000 incurable patients urgently need to travel abroad to receive treatment. He pointed out that two flights per week, as decided in the truce, are not enough to save the lives of patients.

 Al-Asbahi indicated that the Saudi-led aggression’s repudiation of the implementation of the truce is a crime that has humanitarian repercussions, stressing that the coalition deliberately doubles the suffering of the Yemeni people in light of the silence of the United Nations.

In addition to these obstacles imposed by the coalition to repudiate the truce is the non-acceptance of patients’ passports issued by Sana’a, which prompted the Sana’a government to reject this condition as it is outside the terms of the declared UN truce, considering that passports are issued by the Republic of Yemen.

Dangers of Traveling to Aden

International warnings of the intransigence of the coalition that refused to open Sana’a Airport had escalated, prompting the Saudi-led aggression to modify its rigid position to agree, on Thursday evening, to retract its condition related to travelers from Sana’a using passports issued by Aden, instead of those issued by the Sana’a authority.

The director of Sana’a Airport, Khaled Al-Shayef, revealed in previous statements that the coalition’s goal in closing Sana’a International Airport is to kill the Yemeni people by many means, including the cases that ventured to travel through Aden International Airport and who were subjected to various kinds of suffering. Some of them paid their lives for that adventure, while others were subjected to serious violations by the coalition’s gunmen who blocked roads in the occupied areas.

Al-Shayef explained that those who ventured to travel through Aden Airport are sick people, some of whom died due to the distance, the multiplicity of security points, and the waiting for long hours at the points of the coalition forces. He pointed out that many students were prevented from traveling, others were subjected to arrest or enforced disappearance, and very few were fortunate to leave. In addition to merchants and businessmen, some of them were subjected to extortion, some of them were prevented from traveling, and very few were allowed to travel after they paid exorbitant amounts to most of the security points.

Al-Shayef  added that the suffering of the expatriates is no less than the rest of the groups, as some of them were arrested, others were blackmailed, and some cases were killed. As for the group that remained waiting for the opening of Sana’a International Airport, those with incurable diseases, more than one hundred thousand patients died, and others are waiting for an unknown fate. Not to mention the stranded at home and abroad and the deprivation of expatriates from visiting their families, relatives and their homeland.