U.N. medical flight takes off from Yemen

CAIRO — Flights transporting Yemeni medical patients from rebel-held areas continued Saturday when a second plane carrying 24 patients took off from Sanaa bound for Jordan’s capital, the U.N. health agency said.

The U.N. flights, which began Monday, are seen as a humanitarian breakthrough in the more than 5-year-old conflict in the Arab world’s poorest country.

The conflict began with the 2014 takeover of the capital Sanaa by the rebel Houthis, who control much of the country’s north.

A Saudi-led military coalition allied with Yemen’s internationally recognized government has been fighting the Iran-backed Houthis since 2015. The U.S.-backed coalition closed the airspace and prevented any flights from leaving Sanaa starting in August 2016.

The Associated Press reported in November that Saudi Arabia and the Houthis are holding indirect, behind-the-scenes talks to end the war mediated by Oman, quoting officials from both sides.

The talks are focused on interim agreements, such as re-opening Yemen’s main international airport in Sanaa, which was shut down by the Saudi-led coalition in 2016.

There has been no announced explanation for the medical flights, but they could be a result of talks between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis. The first such flight since the air blockade carrying eight patients and their families left Sanaa on Monday.

Saturday’s flight was originally scheduled to depart Sanaa the previous day. However, it did not take off “for technical reasons,” the World Health Organization said Friday, without giving details.

Twenty-four patients and their family members “have departed on the second flight today from Sanaa to Amman to receive the treatment,” the WHO tweeted.