UN flights into Yemen capital resumes following air attacks

The aviation authority run by the Houthi administration in Yemen has allowed temporary resumption of flights by the United Nations and other organizations to Sanaa international airport on Monday, Saba news agency reported.

The Iran-aligned Houthi movement said earlier this month that the capital’s airport had been put out of operation after air raids carried out by the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.

The coalition claimed it only attacked military targets at the airport, from where drone strikes have been launched against Saudi targets.

The airport has been closed to civilian flights since 2015, after the Houthis ousted the Saudi-backed government from Sanaa, although UN planes have been permitted to land there.

The Houthi-run aviation authority announced in a statement on Monday it allowed the resumption of the UN flights “after the malfunctions in communications and navigational devices were temporarily fixed”.

The authority complained that it could not guarantee the long-term continuity of these old devices, and urged the UN to help the entry of new devices that it had purchased.

Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a war against the Arab world’s most impoverished nation in March 2015. The war has been seeking to restore power in Yemen to Riyadh’s favorite officials.

The death toll of the war, now in its seventh year, will reach an estimated 377,000 by the end of 2021, according to a recent report from the UN’s Development Programme.

The fighting has seen some 80 percent of the population, or 24 million people, relying on aid and assistance, including 14.3 million who are in acute need.