According to new reports the Saudi-led coalition’s airstrikes against Sanaa International Airport in Yemen have put a stop to the delivery of UN relief supplies in the country’s impoverished capital.
An airport official told AFP on 21 December that the airport is “no longer able to receive aircraft operated by the United Nations or international humanitarian organizations.”
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) verified the report, stating that “aid delivery to the airport has now come to a halt.”
The airport was already cut off from the rest of the world due to a blockade imposed by the alliance against Yemen since the war began.
According to a UN Development Program estimate released last month, by the end of this year Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen will have taken 377,000 lives due to both direct and indirect effects.
In March 2015, A Saudi-led coalition started the war in Yemen in order to restore control to the country’s former Riyadh-allied officials.
In recent months, the coalition has significantly increased its attacks on Yemen’s capital.
The most recent of these airstrikes hit the city on 20 December, with the coalition claiming “a limited number of precision strikes on lawful military targets in Sana’a international airport.”
However, the airport’s director-general, Khaled al-Shayef, stated that the “health quarantine quarters and warehouses to hold export and import commodities were destroyed.”
“Last night’s assaults on Sana’a airport…should help to open the world’s eyes to the madness that is punishing millions of people who have no say in this fight,” said Erin Hutchinson, country director of the NRC.