sana'a airport

AbdulKhaliq Abbas was overjoyed when he heard the much-hyped news that the Saudi-led coalition was finally going to allow humanitarian flights to take off from Yemen’s Sana’a Airport. Finally, he hoped, his five-year-old daughter Rua’a could travel aboard a long-promised UN flight to get medical care abroad. Today, Abbas is back to square one, frustrated that the long-awaited flights have not proceeded as promised.

SANA`A, YEMEN — Mohamed Abdel Rahman al-Rubai, the Secretary-General of the Union of Popular Forces (a long-standing Yemeni political party), died on Sunday in his home in Yemen’s capital Sana`a, when his doctors were unable to transfer him for treatment abroad owing to the closure of Sana`a International Airport by the Saudi-led Coalition. The Coalition has closed the airport since 2016 and its devastating blockade of Yemen’s ports is now in its fifth year.

SANA’A, YEMEN — Laying inside an incubator with a ventilator in the critical-care unit at al Thwarah Hospital in Yemen’s capital Sana’a, two-week-old Abd al-Khaleq, and Abd al-Rahim  Akram Ali Ahmed, conjoined twins, died on Saturday as their parents, doctors, and local officials looked on helplessly. The twins died after being prevented by Saudi Arabia from leaving Yemen for life-saving medical care abroad.