Sana’a Airport Blockade Causes Thousands More Yemenis to Die

Yamanyoon-2 Oct 2017

More than 10,000 people have died due to their inability to travel for life-saving treatments. That’s because of a year-long blockade of the airport in the capital, according to Yemeni Health Ministry.

If you want to travel abroad for treatment, you need to wait for weeks, or sometimes even months, because the Saudi aggression  closed the airport. Only Yemen Airways still flies to Seiyun and Aden airports.

There are about ten UN humanitarian flights into Yemen each week. But the flights, which land in Sana’a and Aden, are not available to Yemeni citizens. In December, the UN estimated that the closure of Sana’a Airport had prevented an estimated 20,000 people from accessing life-saving healthcare abroad.

Civilians are the victims everywhere — the fighting kills civilians, diseases hit civilians, the closure of the airport affects civilians, the economic blockade hits civilians.

Allowing Yemenis to travel more freely would save at least some of those innocent lives, he argued:

“I appeal to the international community to help civilians and to reopen Sana’a Airport.”