1st commercial flight in nearly 6 years departs Yemeni capital

SANAA, Yemen (AA) – The first commercial flight in nearly six years took off on Wednesday from Sanaa in war-torn Yemen to the Egyptian capital Cairo.

“A flight carrying 78 passengers left to Cairo,” a source at Sanaa Airport told Anadolu Agency.

In April, Yemen’s warring rivals agreed to a UN-brokered two-month truce under which all military operations were halted.

The truce agreement included the operation of commercial flights from rebel-held Sanaa Airport in the Yemeni capital.

The airport was closed by the Saudi-led coalition since 2016, saying that its facilities were used by Houthis for military purposes, a claim denied by the rebels.

Yemen has been engulfed by violence and instability since 2014, when Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels captured much of the country, including Sanaa.

The Saudi-led coalition entered the war in early 2015 to restore the Yemeni government to power.

The eight-year conflict has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with millions suffering from hunger.

*Writing by Bassel Barakat