First commercial flight in years takes off from Yemen’s Sanaa.
The first commercial flight in six years took off from Yemen’s rebel-held capital on Monday.
The Yemenia flight, which carried 126 passengers, took off from Sana’a International Airport to Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, Jordan.
Originally the flight was scheduled for April 24, however, the airline announced that it was not allowed to operate and thus postponed it to May 16.
Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, has been wrecked with fighting since 2014 when a civil war erupted.
The United Nations says the conflict, pitting a Saudi-led coalition supporting the government against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, has created a humanitarian catastrophe.
More than 23 million Yemenis across the country need humanitarian help.
Monday’s flight is part of the UN-brokered, 60-day truce agreement that allows for two commercial flights a week to and from Sanaa to Jordan and Egypt.
Commercial flights are necessary to allow Yemenis, particularly those with health issues, to receive treatment abroad, given the country’s weak medical infrastructure.
“This should be a moment of coming together to do more, to start repairing what the war has broken,” UN envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said in a statement.
He urged both parties to implement all truce commitments and “move towards resuming a political process to sustainably end the conflict.”
The White House welcomed the flight as evidence of the cease-fire’s “ongoing benefits for the Yemeni people.”
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