The Yemeni government welcomed on Tuesday the inauguration of medical flights from Sanaa that took a number of patients to Amman.
"The airlift from Sanaa airport to Egypt and Jordan is a humanitarian move,” Yemen’s Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani said on Tuesday.
He said this initiative affirms that the Yemeni government and the Arab Coalition are interested in alleviating the people’s suffering in Houthi-controlled areas by facilitating their travel abroad for medication.
The first mercy flight, supervised by the World Health Organization (WHO), was allocated to transport patients needing urgent medical attention from Sanaa airport to Egypt and Jordan.
It arrived in the Jordanian on Monday, carrying 30 patients.
“It is necessary to place a mechanism that guarantees the use of this humanitarian bridge by all patients residing in Houthi-controlled areas, and not restrict this initiative only to cases related to the militia group,” the Information Minister stressed.
According to WHO, the flights will offer a “lifeline” to a number of patients suffering from cancer, tumors or requiring organ transplants and reconstructive surgeries to survive.
Earlier, both Egypt and Jordan announced they would host a number of Yemenis at their local medical centers.
Early this week, a joint statement by the Office of the UN's envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths, the UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs Lise Grande and the Representative of the WHO in Yemen, Eltaf Mosani, said the air flight carried the first group of the sick along with their companions.
