PHOTO
Yemeni Muslims wait at the Sanaa International Airport's to board a flight heading to Mecca to perform the Hajj pilgrimage, on June 17, 2023. The first commercial flight from Yemen's rebel-held capital to Saudi Arabia since 2016 took off carrying hajj pilgrims on June 17, in the latest sign of easing tensions after years of war. (Photo by MOHAMMED HUWAIS / AFP)
The first commercial flight from Yemen's rebel-held capital to Saudi Arabia since 2016 took off carrying hajj pilgrims on Saturday, in the latest sign of easing tensions after years of war.
A Yemenia Airways plane carrying 277 travellers departed at around 8 pm (1700 GMT), an official told AFP.
"Hopefully, the blockade will end and the airport will remain open. We are very happy and relieved, and I cannot describe the feeling," said Mohammad Askar, one of the travellers.
The flight is the first since Sanaa's airport was closed by the coalition blockade in August 2016.
Hundreds of thousands of people have died in the fighting or from indirect causes such as lack of food or water in what the United Nations calls one of the world's biggest humanitarian crises.
