Yemeni Presidential Council forms a committee to manage the Houthi hijacking of planes and restrict their use
Yemen Monitor/Newsroom
The Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council has approved the formation of a government committee to manage the crisis of the Houthis hijacking of four civilian aircraft at Sana’a International Airport through restricting their use until further notice, and lifting the freeze on the company’s frozen funds of more than $100 million.
This came during an extraordinary meeting headed by the President of the Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, and attended by five of its seven members, according to the official Yemeni News Agency.
The Presidential Leadership Council considered the Houthis’ hijacking of the planes of the financially and administratively independent airline to be a fully-fledged terrorist operation, adding to their serious violations that have affected national and foreign air and maritime carriers over the past years.
The Council held the Houthis fully responsible for the consequences of this dangerous escalation, which is likely to further deepen the suffering of citizens and affect the movement of the national carrier’s flights, causing it heavy losses.
On June 26, Yemen Airways accused the Houthi group of hijacking 4 of its passenger planes at Sana’a International Airport, which is under the control of the group.
Yemen Airways said in a statement that it was surprised by the Houthi group’s detention of 3 of its Airbus 320 aircraft on Tuesday, June 25, noting that “the number of its aircraft detained by the Houthis has thus risen to 4, as the militia detained another Airbus 330 passenger plane more than a month ago.”
It also pointed out that “the three aircraft were detained at Sana’a International Airport upon their arrival from King Abdulaziz Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, explaining that “these aircraft were carrying hundreds of pilgrims returning from the holy sites after completing the Hajj pilgrimage.”
Yemen Airways attributed the heading of its aircraft to Sana’a to the presence of about 8,400 pilgrims from the capital and areas under Houthi control, explaining that “thousands of pilgrims are still stranded in Saudi Arabia.”
