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Yemen: UN Medical Air Bridge Little More Than Saudi PR Stunt Say Desperate Patients
February 17, 2020 4 views
Yemen-Press Many Yemenis have described the much-lauded UN medical air bridge as little more than a public relations stunt aimed at improving Saudi Arabia’s image in the world. 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.
Last week, the United Nations announced that an air bridge would finally begin to evacuate Yemenis to Jorden for medical treatment following two years of negotiations between the Houthi government in Sana’a and Saudi-led Coalition.
So far, Just two flights have taken place, the first on February 3 and the second on February 8.
The UN promises that more operations will take place in the coming days, transporting patients to either Egypt or Jordan for specialized care.
Lise Grande, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen described the move as a very important step “It’s a day of hope.
It shows that everyone wants the people who need help to get that help,” Grande said, adding, “The key is to have many flights, bigger planes so that the people who need aid can get to the places where they will receive it.”
However, the humanitarian non-profit the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said that move comes too late.
The NRC confirmed that thousands of Yemenis had been handed down a death sentence when the Saudi-led military coalition waging a war on Yemen closed down the Sana’a International Airport in 2016.
“Today’s move comes too late for thousands of Yemenis who died waiting to leave the country for urgent life-saving care,” NRC’s Yemen Country Director, Mohammed Abdi said, adding, “Many more are still waiting to get the healthcare they need.” Director-General of Sana’a International Airport, Khalid al-Shaif said two flights that have taken place were not part of a medical air bridge but were cherry-picked cases that flew out on the UN special envoy’s own plane.
“In fact, there is no air bridge in the country as the United Nations and coalitions countries claim.
Just cases evacuated by the special envoy’s plane.
There are no medical aircraft that have taken off or landed at Sana’a airport so far.
Patients have also not been scheduled [for flights] by the United Nations,” al-Shaif said.
Every day, the blockade on Sana’a International Airport, imposed by the Saudi-led coalition and supported by the United States, has killed dozens of times as many people as the much-hyped coronavirus.
In 2016, the Coalition — which controls all Yemeni airspace — began allowing only UN-chartered planes to take off from the facility.
The blockade has prevented thousands of sick Yemenis from leaving the country for medical urgent care and stopped medicine and equipment from getting in.
This on top of the fact that the Coalition, supported by the United States, has severely damaged health care systems in Yemen, disrupting people’s ability to treat both chronic and communicable diseases and leaving 19.7 million people in need of basic health care, according to the UN
Saudi Arabia and a number of its allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and eliminating the Yemeni Houthi Ansarullah movement, whose fighters have been significantly helping the Yemeni army in defending the country against invaders since the onset of war.Watch the Saudi war crime in al-Jawf after Tornado jet crashing
The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives since.
TAGScoronavirusJordenSaudi ArabiaSaudi-American aggressionUNUN medical air bridgeyemenYemeni patients
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