UN signals it will not take over security at Yemen airport

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations signalled on Friday it was not responsible for controlling Yemen’s main airport, dismissing a call by a Gulf Arab coalition for the world body do so.

The coalition on Thursday asked the United Nations to take control of the airport in the capital Sanaa.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric called on the warring parties to allow humanitarian aid access including through the airport.

“(The airport) is not under UN control,” Dujarric told reporters. “The parties to the conflict have the responsibility to ensure the protection of civilians and their access to humanitarian relief, including through the use of airspace and airport.”

Hunger and disease have been unleashed by the two-year-old conflict, and the United Nations estimates 10,000 people have been killed.

Dujarric said he is unaware if the United Nations had received a formal request from the coalition for the world body to take control of the airport. “We have been in contact with the government of Yemen and the Gulf Arab coalition to advocate the reopening of Yemen’s airspace around the airport for humanitarian flights,” he said.

In March, the coalition proposed that the United Nations monitor Yemen’s strategic Hodeidah port after a deadly attack on a boatload of Somali refugees.

The United Nations said at the time that warring parties were responsible for the protection of civilians and infrastructure and not others.

Four soldiers from the United Arab Emirates died after their helicopter crashed in Yemen, the General Command of the UAE’s armed forces said in a statement.

The helicopter which was carrying the four soldiers had a “technical failure, which led to an emergency landing and impact on the ground,”the statement said.

It added that the four were killed “while carrying out their normal duties in Shabwa governorate in Yemen.”