Saudis to ease up on Yemen blockade

ADEN/GENEVA (Reuters) – The Saudi-led military coalition fighting against Yemen’s Houthi movement will allow the resumption of international commercial flights to the country, a Yemeni government minister said, easing its nationwide blockade.

Flights by national carrier Yemenia to the pro-Saudi government-held cities of Aden and Seiyun will resume on Sunday, Transport Minister Mourad al-Halimi said.

The alliance said on Monday that it had closed all air, land and sea ports in Yemen to stem the alleged flow of arms to the Houthis from Iran after Saudi Arabia intercepted a missile fired toward Riyadh, which it blamed on Tehran.

The UN had warned a total blockade could cause a famine that could kill millions in Yemen, where two-anda-half years of war has killed at least 10,000 people and unleashed famine and disease in the already impoverished country.

United Nations aid chief Mark Lowcock said on Wednesday that if the coalition did not allow aid access to Yemen, it would cause “the largest famine the world has seen for many decades, with millions of victims.”

The European commissioner for humanitarian aid called on the Saudi-led coalition to allow aid to reach the Yemeni population.

“The EU urges the coalition to ensure the immediate resumption of the UN’s flights and activities in the ports of Hodeida and Saleef and the opening of land borders for humanitarian relief and basic commercial commodities,” Christos Stylianides said on Saturday.

The government-held southern Yemeni port of Aden was reopened on Wednesday, but ports in Houthi-held areas are still shut. The coalition reopened the al Wadea border crossing linking Saudi Arabia with territory in eastern Yemen on Thursday.

Yemen’s stocks of fuel and vaccines will run out in a month unless the Saudi-led coalition allows aid into the blockaded port of Hodeidah and the airport at San’aa, UNICEF’s representative in the country said on Friday.

Meritxell Relano, speaking by phone to reporters in Geneva, said fuel prices had risen 60% and there were urgent concerns about a diphtheria outbreak, as well as food shortages because of the port closure.

After two years of civil war, Yemen has 7 million people on the brink of famine and has had 900,000 suspected cholera cases since April.

The cholera epidemic had abated in recent weeks with the number of cases slowing amid a major push to fight the disease. But the World Health Organization said the progress could be reversed by the blockade.

“If the closure is not stopped in the coming days, we may see that the progress is stopped,” WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told a briefing in Geneva. “We can see even more cases and more deaths as a result of not being able to get access to people.”