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Russian plane with evacuees from Yemen lands in Egypt’s Cairo

The first Il-62 has already landed in the Egyptian capital, while the second plane is expected to arrive in an hour, the spokesperson for Cairo’s international airport said

CAIRO, April 12. /TASS/. One of Russian planes with evacuees from Yemen has landed in Egypt’s Cairo, a spokesperson for Cairo’s international airport told TASS on Sunday.

The first Il-62 has already landed in the Egyptian capital, while the second plane is expected to arrive in an hour, the spokesperson said.

The Russian Embassy in Sanaa earlier said around 150 people have been evacuated from Yemen today. Among them are citizens of Russia, CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), and several Arab countries, including Egypt.

The planes were planned to fly to Sanaa, Yemen’s capital on Saturday, but Saudi Arabia did not permit them, prompting them to return to Cairo and wait for a permission until Sunday’s morning. Later, the planes will take people to Russia.

A Tu-154 plane has flown today from Cairo to Djibouti to pick up evacuees from Yemen. Overnight to Sunday, Russian Priazovye ship evacuated people from Yemen’s second-largest city of Aden. Among 308 evacuees are citizens of 19 countries, including 45 Russians. The plane will fly to Egypt later today for refueling and then take around 140 Russian and CIS citizens to Moscow.

Evacuation from Yemen

Over the last days, Russian planes evacuated around 600 people from Yemen, mostly women and children. On April 6, a Russian plane evacuated 159 evacuated people from Yemen’s capital Sanaa, including 47 Russians and 89 CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) citizens.

Last week, the Red Cross called on all sides in the Yemeni conflict to declare "a 24-hour humanitarian pause" and open air, ground and sea channels for delivering humanitarian aid.

On March 31, UN evacuated its personnel from Yemen for security concerns. Russia started evacuating its nationals from the country as well. Several countries, including Germany, the United States, Turkey and Japan, suspended operation at their respective embassies in Yemen.

The humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate. The World Health Organization said that 643 people were killed in the conflict and 2,226 more injured as of April 6. The crisis in the Persian Gulf country has affected around 15.9 million people. More than 254,000 people fled the country, while 334,000 were internally displaced.

Crisis in Yemen

Since August 2014, Yemen has been hit by a severe political and security crisis. In late January, the armed groups of Ansar Allah (Houthi rebels) forced the president and the government to announce resignation.

The rebels later took control of the country’s capital and several northern provinces. They also announced the adoption of the so-called constitutional declaration.

Overnight to March 26, Saudi Arabia launched a military operation in the neighboring country and delivered air strikes at several Houthi positions. The coalition was later joined by Bahrein, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan and Sudan.

Yemeni President Abd Rabbah Mansur Hadi fled the country to Saudi Arabia.

Houthi rebels are currently fighting pro-government forces over control of Yemen’s second-largest city of Aden. The coalition is currently considering launching a ground operation in Yemen to oust Houthis.