A Sanaa-Amman flight scheduled for Sunday, April 26th, has been indefinitely postponed amidst an increasingly fragile truce between the internationally-recognized Yemeni government and Houthi rebels. Both sides are trading blame as to why the flight was canceled. The flight was expected to depart from the government-controlled southern port city of Aden, stop in the capital Sanaa, and then take passengers seeking medical treatment to Jordan’s capital Amman. It would have been the first commercial flight out of the Sanaa airport since flights were suspended in August 2016 due to air attacks in the ongoing civil war. Humanitarian groups, including the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), hoped flights would resume under the ceasefire as thousands of sick Yemeni civilians have lacked adequate medical treatment under the commercial pause. 

Houthi authorities in Sanaa were quick to blame the Saudi-led military coalition for denying the necessary permits for the flight. Hours before the flight was set to depart, Yemenia, the country’s national carrier, expressed “Deep regret to the travelers for not being allowed to operate” because they had “Not yet received operating permits.” The deputy head of civil aviation in Sanaa, Raed Talib Jabal, said the cancellation was “a violation of the truce” and is part of the coalition’s deliberate attempt “To double the suffering of the Yemeni people while seeking to mislead international public opinion about the humanitarian file.” 

The internationally-recognized government claimed that the Houthis were attempting to smuggle members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Lebanon’s Hezbollah onto the flight. Moammar al-Eryani, the government’s information minister, said the Houthis violated the agreement by providing passports issued by the rebels, which the coalition has not recognized since March 2017, and insisting on adding sixty more passengers to the flight, many of whom were using “Fake names and forged documents.” The flight “Faltered due to the Houthi terrorist militia’s non-compliance with the agreement stipulating the approval of passports issued by the legitimate government,” al-Eryani said. 

The United Nations special envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg voiced concern Sunday for the delay, urging the two parties “To find a solution that allows flights to resume as planned.” The truce “Is meant to benefit civilians including through reducing violence, making fuel available, and improving their freedom of movement to, from and within their country,” he said. Rights groups are also disappointed in the outcome. The NRC’s Yemen Director Erin Hutchinson said, “This would have been the first small but important step towards long-lasting stability in Yemen.” 

A 60-day UN-brokered truce went into effect on April 2nd, paving the way for the Sanaa airport to restart commercial flights. The truce has allowed some humanitarian aid to already have an impact; however, thousands of people are still in dire need of medical treatment, making it imperative commercial flights can depart Sanaa. The Yemen government’s new leadership council and Houthi leadership must find a solution that allows flights to resume in accordance with the truce. More setbacks pose a higher probability of the truce ultimately failing, plunging civilians back into a civil war already in its seventh year. The two parties must come together to allow commercial flights to continue, creating a higher likelihood of the truce being renewed.

Houthi forces have controlled Sanaa since seizing the capital and lots of northern Yemen in 2014. The internationally-recognized president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, was forced into exile in Riyadh as the Houthi movement protested Hadi’s increasingly centralized control of power. In early 2015, a Saudi-led military coalition launched a war in support of Hadi, carrying out extensive bombing campaigns on Houthi-held territory. The country has since become a regional proxy war, with Iran backing the Houthis. Coalition blockades on ports and the closing of the Sanaa airport have devastated the country, which relies on imports for 70% of its food. The lack of food, coupled with medicine shortages, has left thousands dead and a projected 19 million facing hunger and malnutrition in the second half of 2022. 

It is imperative that solutions be reached to allow the Sanaa airport to continue commercial flights. Only through extensive cooperation between Yemen’s internationally recognized leadership council and Houthi leadership will a truce hold. A continued ceasefire is essential for thousands to reach the medical care they need and for much-needed food and fuel to enter the country and ease the suffering. A recovering Yemen must be centered around uninhibited flows of people and humanitarian aid into, within, and out of the country.