Around 60,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been sent via plane to war-ravaged Yemen by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on June 17.
This air shipment – delivered by Emirates Red Crescent (ERC), which is the UAE’s humanitarian arm — was the first medical aid shipment to Yemen’s strategic Island of Socotra in a bid to support the local authorities’ efforts to combat the pandemic, a government source told Xinhua.
The first shipment included doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine for free distribution in providing greater protection to the vulnerable, elderly, and those with chronic diseases in Socotra, the source said.
April 2021 had witnessed the UAE beginning the first-phase construction of eight medical facilities in Yemen’s southeastern province of Hadramout, which was focused on improving the country’s health sector that had been aggravated by years of deadly conflict.
The UAE has, from 2015, provided aid amounting to over $ 6 billion to the war-torn Yemeni regions for rebuilding various sectors including vital infrastructure, while also restoring health and social services, UAE officials said adding that the UAE is also an active member of the Saudi-led Arab coalition that has been fighting the Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015.
Yemen has been locked in a civil war since late 2014, when the Houthis overran much of the country and seized all northern provinces including the capital Sanaa.
