The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has told it to resume passenger flights run by the relief agencies of the Houthi-controlled Sanaa airport, but confirmed that humanitarian aid supplies through sea ports were still on hold, the United Nations said on Friday.
On Wednesday, the alliance announced the reopening of Sanaa airport and Red Sea port of Hodeidah for humanitarian aid, two weeks after a stifling blockade was imposed after Yemeni rebels launched a ballistic missile on Bastia on November 4, 2017, intercepted over Riyadh International Airport.
But a spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told reporters in Geneva that Riyadh had not yet given permission to resume humanitarian aid.
“The United Nations has been informed by regular means of communication in Riyadh that regular passenger flights operated by the United Nations humanitarian air service can resume to Sana’a from Amman as of tomorrow (Saturday),” Jens Lirk said.
“But there is no fundamental change in requests for humanitarian assistance by sea to the ports of Hodeidah and Salib.”
The United Nations welcomed the resumption of passenger flights but stressed the urgent need to resume humanitarian aid, especially as the threat of famine doubled.
He explained that a boat loaded with wheat and another equipment to fight the cholera epidemic is waiting to go to Hodeidah after the approval of the United Nations.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) sent a passenger flight to Sanaa on Wednesday, its spokesman Eun Watson told AFP.
Seven million Yemenis depend entirely on humanitarian aid to survive, the United Nations says.
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels allied with former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh control the capital Sana’a and much of northern Yemen.
Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military alliance in Yemen to support the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi against the Huthis.
According to the World Health Organization, the conflict in Yemen has left more than 8750 dead and 50,600 injured, including many civilians.
