Yemen rebels allow UN flights into Sanaa airport

Cairo, Dec. 28: The Iranbacked rebels in Yemen said Tuesday they are temporarily allowing UN humanitarian flights to land at the airport in the capital, Sanaa, following a weeklong halt in flights into the northern, rebelheld territory.

The rebel Houthis, who control Sanaa and much of Yemen’s north, had barred UN and other humanitarian flights from landing at the airport amid heavy airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition on the capital and Houthis’ cross-border missile and drone attacks on the kingdom. At the time, the UN food programme said the Houthis claimed the airport had become “unserviceable due to technical issue”. The rebels accused the Saudi-led coalition of blocking the arrival of new air traffic control equipment.

The coalition has been fighting to restore Yemen’s internationally recognised government to power and maintains an air, land and sea blockade of Sanaa and the north. The Sanaa airport “is ready to receive flights” from the UN and other international humanitarian agencies, the Houthis said Tuesday. They also urged the United Nations to help facilitate the arrival of the air control equipment from Djibouti.

Yemen’s war erupted in 2014, when the Houthis seized Sana and forced the government into exile in Saudi Arabia. The coalition entered the conflict in March 2015.

The UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, denounced the latest uptick in fighting in Yemen, particularly the continued Houthi offensive on the government-held city of Marib.

“The escalation in recent weeks is among the worst we have seen in Yemen for years and the threat to civilian lives is increasing,” he said. Grundberg also voiced concerns over deadly coalition airstrikes on Sanaa and the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, and urged the warring sides to engage with UN efforts to deescalate the violence, address urgent humanitarian needs and launch a political process to end the conflict. Also Tuesday, two UN agencies revealed that the Houthis arrested two of their employees in Sanaa in early November.

Unesco and the UN human rights office said no legal grounds were given for their detention. Both agencies expressed concern for their employees’ well-being and called for their immediate release. A Houthi spokesman did not answer phone calls seeking comment.

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