Aid groups protest ongoing bombing of Sanaa airport

Aid groups slammed the continued bombing of the international airport in Yemen's capital on Wednesday, which has been hit with an average of one bomb every two weeks since a Saudi-led coalition closed it to all commercial traffic two years ago.

The Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE International said the coalition has carried out 56 airstrikes over the last two years on the airport in Sanaa. 

The aid groups cited figures from the Yemen Data Project, which monitors the war.

Johan Mooij, CARE's director in Yemen, said the airport has become a "a symbol of aggression and oppression for a very large population.”

The Saudi-led coalition intervened to push back Houthis in March 2015, after the rebels overran the capital and other major cities.

The rebels seized control of government buildings and institutes, including the international airport, however the Saudi-led coalition controls Yemen's airspace.

More than 10,000 people have been killed since the 2015 military intervention, prompting the United Nations to describe the conflict as “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis”.

Last week, a bombing in the port city of Hodeida killed 55 civilians and injured hundreds, but the warring factions have denied responsibility and traded blame.

On Tuesday, a Yemeni human rights organisation called for a “fair and impartial” investigation in the attack which targeted targeted a fish market and the gate of the port city’s Thawra hospital.

The Geneva-based rights group Rights Radar said it “strongly condemned this massacre in Hodeida occurred last Thursday, August 2, 2018, which amounts to a war crime.

“The group called on the United Nations and the international community to intervene to stop the series of massacres committed against civilians during the past three years of the war in Yemen, and to ensure a fair and impartial international investigation that should reveal the actual perpetrators of these massacres, prevent their recurrence and preserve the rights of victims,” the group said in a statement sent to The New Arab.

While the war rages on, malnutrition, cholera and other diseases have killed or sickened thousands of civilians over the years, and more than 22.2 million people in Yemen are in need of assistance.

Follow us on Twitter: @The_NewArab