IOM continue evacuation flights from Yemen

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said its third charter flight to evacuate Third Country Nationals (TCN) from Sana’a, Yemen to Addis Ababa is expected to take off later in the day .

The second flight, with 148 passengers on board, included nationals of 13 countries including Albania, Bangladesh, Canada, Egypt, Ethiopia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, Tunisia, UK and USA.

The operation, which included the provision of onward transportation from Khartoum, follows an earlier IOM evacuation flight from Sana’a to Khartoum organized on Sunday (12/4).

Many of the passengers had been waiting for days at Sana’a airport, due to the complex arrangements needed to clear the flights and the logistical challenges of getting people to the airport on time. Periodic power outages were an additional challenge.

“IOM has received requests from 38 countries to evacuate their nationals from Yemen and we believe that there may be as many as 16,000 stranded TCNs. We have negotiated an agreement with Sudan and Ethiopia to create a humanitarian air bridge to allow us to evacuate as many people as possible and the next evacuation flight should take place tomorrow (16/4) from Sana’a to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia,” said Mohammed Abdiker, Director of IOM’s Department of Operations and Emergencies.

“But the security situation remains extremely fragile. IOM is also desperately short of cash and we currently only have sufficient funds for two more charters,” he added.

IOM last week appealed for funding to support its evacuation operations as well as its humanitarian assistance programme inside Yemen. IOM’s initial appeal was for USD 10 million and this amount is expected to significantly increase to cover the expected evacuation caseload.