First UN ‘mercy flight’ leaves Yemen’s rebel-held Sanaa
Sanaa: Yemeni children in critical need of medical care were evacuated Monday from the rebel-held capital Sanaa, in what the United Nations hopes will be the first of more mercy flights.
Seven young patients and their relatives flew out of Sanaa airport, aboard a UN-marked plane bound for Amman.
“This is the first of what we hope will be a number of flights in the medical air bridge,” UN Resident Coordinator for Yemen Lise Grande told AFP, adding that more patients and their families would travel to Jordan and Egypt in coming days.
“It’s crucially important that this first flight has gone,” she said of the evacuation programme which took months to negotiate.
“All of us feel today that this is a major breakthrough and an indication of hope out of Yemen.” – AFP