A commercial flight is set to depart from Yemen’s capital city Sanaa after a gap of six years, a UN spokesman said, adding that it was an essential step in the ongoing two-month ceasefire.
The flight will head to to Amman, Jordan, Xinhua news agency quoted Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as saying.
“The UN thanks the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for its support in bringing about this achievement, and the Government of Yemen for its constructive role in making this happen.”
The world body counts on all parties involved to ensure a successful flight, Dujarric said.
The flight is an important element of the truce between the government and the Houthi militia reached earlier this month through the mediation efforts of Hans Grundberg, the UN special envoy for Yemen.
The spokesman expressed the hope that parties to the accord will continue facilitating the flights as terms of the truce agreement.
The Sanaa International Airport, presently controlled by the Houthi militia, has been effectively out of service since the Saudi offensive on Yemen in 2015.
Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014, when the Houthi militia seized control of several northern provinces and forced the Saudi-backed Yemeni government out of the capital Sanaa.