Yemen's Critically Ill Are Trapped as War Closes Airports
As of October 20, 2026, no regular flights were leaving Sanaa International Airport, leaving critically ill Yemenis with almost no way to seek treatment abroad. Aden airport, in the south, had also come under attack.
Sanaa is the main air link for millions of people living under Houthi control in northern Yemen, according to Al Jazeera.
For patients such as Rajaa Ghirsan, the closure has narrowed an already difficult path. Ghirsan, a 50-year-old seamstress from Sanaa, has vocal cord paralysis and severe larynx complications that leave her barely able to speak or breathe.
She depends on a breathing device fitted to her neck that must be replaced every two months at a cost of $100 each time. She has undergone six operations in Egypt and India since 2006 and needs another complex operation abroad to open her airway.
Ghirsan registered with the Higher Medical Committee in Sanaa and spent seven years trying to secure a seat on a once-weekly flight to Amman for treatment.
Sanaa airport was closed to commercial traffic by the Saudi-led coalition in August 2016. A United Nations-brokered truce, a temporary halt in fighting, allowed a limited number of flights to resume in May 2022.
Israeli air attacks in 2025 damaged the airport and destroyed aircraft. In July, Yemeni government forces backed by Saudi Arabia struck Sanaa airport's only working runway to prevent an Iranian plane carrying a Houthi delegation from landing.
Anis al-Asbahi, spokesperson for the Houthi-run Ministry of Health in Sanaa, said repeated closures over the past decade affected about 400,000 patients, including 250,000 needing treatment abroad. He said flight disruptions affected more than 125,000 people with cancer facing medicine shortages.
Al-Asbahi said the closures led to shortages of more than 1,600 types of medicine, including 12 cancer drugs barred from entering Yemen. More than 40,000 patients with thalassemia and haemolytic anaemia face shortages of iron chelation drugs and intravenous solutions.
The airport closures are part of a wider round of strikes on aviation. On October 7, the Houthis struck Aden airport as a flight was due to land, according to Yemen's ministry. Missiles struck Aden International Airport again on October 16, according to Reuters. Flights at Aden had earlier been halted in January amid a deepening Saudi-UAE rift.
Riyadh airport was shut following deadly Houthi attacks over the weekend before October 12. Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis carried out those attacks, and airlines cancelled flights to Saudi Arabia in response, Reuters reported. Some airlines suspended flights to Riyadh until later in October. The airport later reopened, but international airlines extended their suspension of flights to Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi-led coalition said Houthi attacks on Abha airport, in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border, killed three people and wounded 28. Around October 16, the coalition said it had intercepted a ballistic missile headed for Yanbu. In July, the Houthis fired missiles at Saudi Arabia after accusing Saudi Arabia of bombing an airport under Houthi control, breaking years of calm.
Yemen's health system is under added strain. Nine health facilities or health assets in Taiz, Lahj and Al-Hodeidah have been damaged, put out of service, closed or directly attacked. In 2026, the humanitarian health response entered a more constrained phase as funding shortfalls and insecurity drove the phase-out of health partners, while the World Health Organization in Aden announced on September 23 that it was scaling up its emergency health response amid escalating conflict.
