Jordan takes in more than 250 wounded from Yemen war

More than 250 people injured in Yemen's conflict were flown in to Jordan on Sunday for hospital treatment, a medical official said, with emergency services at home overwhelmed with casualties.

The 266 patients included many young civilians, women and children, said Fawzi al-Hammuri, chairman of Jordan's Private Hospitals Association.

It was the largest group of Yemeni wounded to arrive in Amman since August under an agreement struck between private Jordanian clinics and the Yemeni government.

"Most of the wounded are young civilians," he said, adding that they have been admitted to 10 private hospitals in Jordan.

According to Hammuri, most of the wounded had bone injuries, while others had chest and stomach wounds caused by gunfire, explosions, bombs or burns.

They were flown in from Yemen's second city Aden on two Yemeni planes, said Hammuri,

Yemeni exiled president Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government is picking up the hospital tabs, said Hammuri, who estimated the total cost at $5 million.

In August, 180 Yemenis arrived in Jordan in two separate batches for medical treatment in the kingdom.

Jordan is part of a Saudi-led coalition which since March has waged an air campaign against Shiite Huthi rebels who overran much of Yemen forcing Hadi to flee into exile in Saudi Arabia.

More than 4,500 people have been killed in the conflict, including hundreds of children, according to the United Nations.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned in August that health services in impoverished Yemen were "nearing collapse".

Following a visit to Yemen in August, the top United Nations aid official, Stephen O'Brien, said the "scale of human suffering is almost incomprehensible".

Source: AFP