ADEN, Yemen, May 30 (NNN-SABA) – The Yemeni government announced yesterday, the reopening of a key highway connecting the southern port city of Aden with the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa, after a seven-year closure caused by the ongoing internal conflict.
Ali Muqbil Saleh, governor of the government-controlled southern province of Dhalea, said on social media platform X that, the reopening is “an important step towards improving living and humanitarian conditions in the country,” expressing hope that it would strengthen “communication and cooperation between different regions.”
Another government official, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed that senior officials from Yemen’s Ministry of Defence supervised the reopening of the highway.
He said that, “for many families separated by years-long conflict lines, traders struggling to move goods, and patients seeking medical care across territorial boundaries, the road represents a lifeline that many feared might never reopen again.”
“A number of tribal leaders and representatives of local humanitarian organisations conducted days of unusual coordination between the warring factions, and finally succeeded in getting permissions to reopen the highway, after dismantling scores of landmines and explosive devices planted previously in the area,” added the official.
Travellers once faced arduous journeys of over 600 km through dangerous alternative routes, to travel from Sanaa to Aden. The reopened highway reduces this distance to approximately 360 km, according to the official.
The Houthis also announced the road’s reopening, describing it as an initiative “aimed at alleviating the suffering of citizens.”
The conflict between the internationally recognised government and the Houthis has cut off multiple main transit routes across the war-ravaged Arab nation since late 2014.
Yemen has been in a state of uneasy calm since Oct 2, 2022, when the government and the Houthis failed to renew and expand a UN-brokered truce.
Despite years of diplomatic efforts, neither side has shown a willingness to resume negotiations to end the conflict, which the UN estimates has killed hundreds of thousands of people and pushed millions to the brink of famine in Yemen.– NNN-SABA
