Yemen’s critically ill are trapped as war closes the country’s airports

A 50‑year‑old seamstress from Sanaa, Rajaa Ghirsan, can barely speak or breathe because her airway is blocked. Vocal‑cord paralysis and serious damage to her larynx force her to wear a neck‑mounted device that keeps her breathing, a piece of equipment that must be replaced every two months at a cost of $100. Since 2006 she has undergone six surgeries in Egypt and India, yet she still needs another complex operation abroad to open her airway. Yemen’s battered health system lacks the specialists and facilities for such care, so she must travel overseas.

Ghirsan applied to the Higher Medical Committee in Sanaa, the body that arranges foreign treatment for patients, and spent seven years trying to secure a seat on a weekly flight to Amman, where many Yemenis have been treated. Repeated airport closures and air strikes have made that flight unattainable, and she cannot afford the long overland trek to Aden, the only other exit point.

“The device helps her breathe a little, but it has worn her out and taken away her rest for years,” says her 28‑year‑old daughter, Nouran al‑Salawi, who has cared for her mother while raising two children. “She is waiting for the moment she can have the last operation and be free of it, or she is waiting for death instead.”

Sanaa International Airport is the main lifeline for millions living under Houthi control in the north, but it has been shut repeatedly since the Saudi‑led coalition halted commercial traffic in August 2016. A UN‑brokered truce allowed a limited number of flights to resume in May 2022, but Israeli air strikes in 2025 damaged the runway and destroyed aircraft. In July, Yemeni government forces backed by Saudi Arabia bombed the airport’s only functional runway to stop an Iranian plane carrying a Houthi delegation from landing. Today no regular flights leave Sanaa, and Aden, the capital of the internationally recognised government, has also been hit by attacks.

Anis al‑Asbahi, spokesperson for the Houthi Ministry of Health, told Al Jazeera that the repeated closures have affected roughly 400,000 patients, including 250,000 who need treatment abroad. More than 125,000 cancer patients face drug shortages, with over 1,600 medicines unavailable, among them 12 cancer drugs barred from entry. Additionally, more than 40,000 patients with thalassemia and haemolytic anaemia lack essential iron‑chelation drugs and intravenous solutions.

The fighting between government and Houthi forces has intensified again, prompting new limits on the movement of aid and people. UN envoy Hans Grundberg told the Security Council this month that Yemen has slipped back into full‑scale war. Aden’s airport was struck twice in October, most recently on the 16th when two missiles landed about 500 metres from a Yemenia plane preparing to depart for Cairo.

With Sanaa’s airport out of service, Aden under attack, and unrest in Seiyun – another eastern airport – patients in northern Yemen have few alternatives. Mohammed Shajara, 30, tried to fly his five‑year‑old paraplegic daughter to Tehran for treatment in June, but Iranian flights to and from Sanaa were blocked in July, leaving them stranded and returning home without care. The next option, a 14‑hour journey to Aden involving dozens of checkpoints, now seems too risky as the airport faces repeated strikes.

Abdulkarim Abdullah, 60, who suffered kidney failure and relied on weekly dialysis in Sanaa, hoped to travel to Amman for a cure. When flights to Jordan were suspended, his family turned to Aden. His brother Mohammed spent about $2,300 on the trip – $200 for a car hire to Aden, $500 for a hotel stay, $400 for security clearances, and $1,200 for plane tickets – selling his sister‑in‑law’s gold and his own car to raise the money. “Despite all of our efforts, my brother never made it to the airport. He died on the road to Aden in January,” Mohammed said.

Aden International Airport remains one of the few remaining gateways for Yemenis seeking life‑saving treatment, but its own vulnerability leaves the country’s most vulnerable patients stranded as the conflict continues to choke the nation’s medical lifelines.