ADEN, Apr 10 (NNN-SABA) – The Yemeni government is reopening a main airport for domestic flights, in the country’s south-eastern province of Hadramout, after being suspended for nearly six years.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Yemen said, it was pleased to fully resume air navigation at Al-Rayyan International Airport, located in the country’s oil-rich province of Hadramout.
It said a flight operated by government-owned Yemenia airline was the first to land at the airport, coming from the southern port city of Aden.
Al-Rayyan airport, Yemen’s third-largest airport, was closed in 2015, when militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaeda branch took advantage of the ongoing civil war and completely captured the strategic city.
The terror elements were heavily deployed across Hadramout, after overrunning all the state offices and government institutions, including Al-Rayyan airport that was partially burned.
An official of Hadramout’s local government confirmed that, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has largely participated in reopening the Al-Rayyan airport, through financing and overseeing all the rehabilitation operations.
“The UAE trained hundreds of local Yemeni fighters and played a significant military role in pushing the al-Qaeda militants out from different areas in Hadramout and recapturing all government facilities, including the airport,” the official said.
He indicated that the UAE began, in 2016, with rebuilding the destroyed state facilities instantly, after ending the anti-terror military campaign carried out against the al-Qaeda militants in Hadramout.
Since 2015, UAE provided more than six billion U.S. dollars in foreign assistance, to the war-torn Yemeni regions, according to UAE officials. The sum was used to help rebuild various sectors in the country, including vital infrastructure, and to restore health and social services.
UAE is still an active member of the Saudi-led Arab military coalition, that has been fighting the Houthi rebels in Yemen, since Mar, 2015.– NNN-SABA
