Rabat- Yemen’s Hudaida airport has allegedly been captured by Saudi and UAE-led coalition forces, freeing it from Houthi control.
Rabat- Yemen’s Hudaida airport has allegedly been captured by Saudi and UAE-led coalition forces, freeing it from Houthi control.
Yesterday, a Yemeni military Twitter account announced that the airport was now, “freed from the grip of the Houthi militia.” However, this claim has not yet been verified with Houthi sources.
The airport is located just three miles south of Hudaida, a Yemeni port city whose southern outskirts have witnessed fierce fighting between the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and the Saudi and Emirati-backed Yemeni military.
On Wednesday, coalition forces launched an offensive on the strategic port city. 70 percent of Yemen’s imports pass through the city of 600,000 people. Given the ongoing fighting, the UN has warned that nearly half the city’s population – some 250,000 people – could lose everything, even their lives.
Residents of Hudaida and those living in the vicinity of the airport are besieged, and the situation is becoming increasingly dire.
As of Thursday, 280 people, including 30 Houthi rebels and nine coalition fighter, have been killed in the offensive.
The UN security council met twice this week to discuss the situation in Yemen. However, it stopped short of demanding an immediate ceasefire on the city, instead urging all combatants to exhibit restraint.
The destruction of infrastructure threatens to provoke a massive humanitarian catastrophe. Yemen is on the brink of famine and reeling from a massive cholera outbreak, and the food and supplies that pass through Hudaida are essential for the majority of Yemen’s already destitute populace. According to estimates, some 22.2 million people, or 75 percent of Yemen’s population, are in need of humanitarian assistance.
