Yemen's Sanaa International Airport will resume operations in the coming days, the airport's general manager said on Wednesday.
Operations of the airport have been suspended since May 6 when it was hit by 12 missiles in an Israeli airstrike against the Houthi group.
The airstrike severely damaged the airport's terminal, runway, and communications and navigation equipment, according to its general manager Khaled Al-Shaif.
Immediately after the airstrike, the airport activated an emergency plan, dividing airport staff into groups to repair facilities and enable backup devices to resume minimum operations as soon as possible, Khaled said.
"After the airport was destroyed, we faced a huge challenge, which was to restore the airport to a minimally operable state as there were people who were stranded outside the country and wanted to return home, people with critical illnesses who needed to go abroad for treatment, as well as UN staff, international students, and expatriates who needed flight services," he said.
Sanaa International Airport is the largest airport in Yemen and the only functional international airport in Houthi-controlled areas prior to the attack.
It once suspended all commercial flights from August 2016 to May 16, 2022 due to conflict.
"Before the airstrike, the airport was operating normally, with an average of two Yemenia Airways flights between Sanaa and Amman every day, and an average of one to three flights of the United Nations and other international organizations every day," Khaled said.
Yemen’s Sanaa airport to resume operations in coming days
Yemen’s Sanaa airport to resume operations in coming days
Humanitarian pressures for migrants are spreading across the Iran as the conflict in the Middle East intensifies, according to the International Organization of Migration (IOM).
Iran hosts a large number of Afghans, with round 4.5 million Afghans working and living there, making it one of the largest migrant hosting countries in the world.
Salvador Gutierrez, representative of the IOM in Iran, said numerous migrants remain excluded from essential public services, with women, children and the elderly particularly at risk.
"We have an increase of the vulnerabilities of all the migrants, particularly the elderly, the children, the women. And as I already mentioned, most of these migrants have already lost their jobs. And they do not have this protection network. They don't have families here. And in several cases, they are also concerned because many of these migrants are irregular migrants, and they do not have access to all the services that the national population has. So, they are struggling much more," he said in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) via video link in Tehran on Thursday.
He said the IOM is working with Iranian authorities to track population movements, assess needs, and deliver emergency assistance on the ground.
"We are coordinating with the government to assess the needs that the population has. We are also conducting these activities related to tracking the mobility, and also monitoring how the flow is in the different borders of the country. We are providing direct support and to migrants, to refugees, to IDPs (internally displaced persons), and also to stranded migrants. So, we are here delivering on the ground and monitoring the situation and even calling all the different countries to support this humanitarian response, which is deeply needed in the country," said Gutierrez.
Rising tensions deepen humanitarian strain for migrants in Iran: expert
