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Saudi Support Raises Efficiency of Yemeni Airports

Aden International Airport, SDRPY
Aden International Airport, SDRPY
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Saudi Support Raises Efficiency of Yemeni Airports

Aden International Airport, SDRPY
Aden International Airport, SDRPY

The Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen (SDRPY) contributions, especially the rehabilitation and development of Yemeni airports, constitute a vital arm for the Yemeni economy.

The rehabilitation of airports represents an essential contribution to improving development in Yemen. This is achieved by raising the level and efficiency of airports and the quality of services provided to travelers and companies operating in the field of aviation.

According to a special report obtained by Asharq Al-Awsat, SDRPY seeks to rehabilitate and develop airports to activate and build the capacities of Yemeni institutions, and to improve the level of infrastructure and basic services provided to the Yemeni people.

SDRPY projects contribute to achieving sustainable development by facilitating trade, tourism and humanitarian aid, which provides job opportunities and improves the standard of living by supporting social stability.

They also help in reaping economic benefits for Yemen by stimulating economic movement and increasing exports and trade.

Aden

Last January, SDRPY launched the first phase of one of its most important projects which is the rehabilitation and upgrading of the Aden International Airport.

The project will develop over three phases.

Phase I focuses on providing electricity, safety measures, and transportation. The external main gates and roads of the complex will be studied and redesigned, and passenger transport buses provided.

Phase II will consist of constructing and connecting vital service systems, such as telecommunications, navigation and air traffic control. Rehabilitation of the runway and taxi areas, gates, and tunnels connecting gates to aircraft will also be undertaken.

Phase III will focus on alignment of airport facilities and operations with ICAO standards in all areas, including safety, electricity supply, interior and exterior infrastructure, air traffic control and navigation.

Al Ghaydah, the capital city of Al Mahrah Governorate

SDRPY succeeded in upgrading and developing Al Ghaydah Airport in Al Mahrah Governorate. The project included equipping the facility with all communications systems, international maritime requirements. It also developed and restored waiting, departure and inspection halls, equipping them with all devices necessary.

The program conducted several tests of the air navigation systems for Al-Ghaydah Airport, in cooperation with internationally accredited companies, which included surveying the airport.

SDRPY equipped Al-Ghaydah Airport with international navigation systems that comply with the specifications of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a body which regulates air traffic.

Socotra

Last April, SDRPY launched two new projects in Socotra governorate in support of transport and airport sectors, and to complete vital development projects in the governorate.

The first project is to provide public transportation buses to raise the efficiency of the transportation sector services within the island, and to serve the people by facilitating their transportation and improving their daily lives.

The second was launched in support of Socotra Airport, by providing everything necessary for the success of the safety plans inside the facility, by preparing an advanced fire truck operating with the latest technologies, which comply with the recommendations of airport safety and firefighting from the ICAO, in addition to providing an ambulance with all medical and emergency supplies.

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Arab World

Global Hunger Monitor: Famine in War-torn Sudan is Spreading

FILE PHOTO: A WFP worker stands next to a truck carrying aid from Port Sudan to Sudan, November 12, 2024. WFP/Abubakar Garelnabei/Handout via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: A WFP worker stands next to a truck carrying aid from Port Sudan to Sudan, November 12, 2024. WFP/Abubakar Garelnabei/Handout via REUTERS
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Global Hunger Monitor: Famine in War-torn Sudan is Spreading

FILE PHOTO: A WFP worker stands next to a truck carrying aid from Port Sudan to Sudan, November 12, 2024. WFP/Abubakar Garelnabei/Handout via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: A WFP worker stands next to a truck carrying aid from Port Sudan to Sudan, November 12, 2024. WFP/Abubakar Garelnabei/Handout via REUTERS

Famine in Sudan has expanded to five areas and will likely spread to another five by May, the global hunger monitor reported Tuesday, while warring parties continue to disrupt humanitarian aid needed to alleviate one of the worst starvation crises in modern times.
Famine conditions were confirmed in Abu Shouk and al-Salam, two camps for internally displaced people in al-Fashir, the besieged capital of North Darfur, as well as two other areas in South Kordofan state, according to the Famine Review Committee of the Integrated Food Phase Classification, or IPC. The committee also found famine, first identified in August, persists in North Darfur's Zamzam camp.
The committee, which vets and verifies a famine finding, predicts famine will expand to five additional areas in North Darfur — Um Kadadah, Melit, al-Fashir, Tawisha and al-Lait — by May. The committee identified another 17 areas across Sudan at risk of famine, Reuters reported.
The IPC estimated about 24.6 million people, about half of all Sudanese, urgently need food aid through February, a sharp increase from the 21.1 million originally projected in June for the same period.
The findings were published despite the Sudanese government's continued disruption of the IPC's process for analyzing acute food insecurity, which helps direct aid where it is most needed. On Monday, the government announced it was suspending its participation in the global hunger-monitoring system, saying it issues "unreliable reports that undermine Sudan's sovereignty and dignity."
The IPC is an independent body funded by Western nations and overseen by 19 large humanitarian organizations and intergovernmental institutions. A linchpin in the world’s vast system for monitoring and alleviating hunger, it is designed to sound the alarm about developing food crises so organizations can respond and prevent famine and mass starvation.
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) are engaged in a civil war with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and are adamantly opposed to a famine declaration for fear it would result in diplomatic pressure to ease border controls and lead to greater foreign engagement with the RSF.
In a Dec. 23 letter to the IPC, the famine review committee and diplomats, Sudan’s agriculture minister said the latest IPC report lacks updated malnutrition data and assessments of crop productivity during the recent summer rainy season. The growing season was successful, the letter says. It also notes "serious concerns" about the IPC's ability to collect data from territories controlled by the RSF.
Under the IPC system, a "technical working group," usually headed by the national government, analyzes data and periodically issues reports that classify areas on a one-to-five scale that slides from minimal to stressed, crisis, emergency and famine.
In October, the Sudanese government temporarily stopped the government-led analysis, according to a document seen by Reuters. After resuming work, the technical working group stopped short of acknowledging famine. The Famine Review Committee report released today said the government-led group excluded key malnutrition data from its analysis.
A recent Reuters investigation found that the Sudanese government obstructed the IPC’s work earlier this year, delaying by months a famine determination for the sprawling Zamzam camp for displaced people where residents have resorted to eating tree leaves to survive.
The civil war that erupted in April 2023 has decimated food production and trade and driven more than 12 million Sudanese from their homes, making it the world’s largest displacement crisis.
The RSF has looted commercial and humanitarian food supplies, disrupted farming and besieged some areas, making trade more costly and food prices unaffordable. The government also has blocked humanitarian organizations’ access to some parts of the country.
"We have the food. We have the trucks on the road. We have the people on the ground. We just need safe passage to deliver assistance," said Jean-Martin Bauer, director of food security and nutrition analysis for the UN’s World Food Program.
In response to questions from Reuters, the RSF said the accusations of looting were "baseless." The RSF also said millions of people in areas it controlled were facing "the threat of hunger," and that it was committed to "fully facilitating the delivery of aid to those affected."
The government said that problems delivering aid were caused by the RSF.
At least a dozen aid workers and diplomats contacted by Reuters for this report said tensions increased between the Sudanese government and humanitarian aid organizations after the IPC determined Zamzam was in famine in August. The sources said the government is slowing the aid response. The government’s general and military intelligence services oversee aid delivery, subjecting international aid approvals to the SAF's political and military goals, the sources said.
The government is slow to approve visas for aid workers, and several aid workers said it has discouraged NGOs from providing relief in the hard-hit Darfur region, which is largely controlled by RSF forces.
The government has told aid organizations "there are no legitimate needs in Darfur, so you should not work there, and if you continue to respond to needs there, you should not expect visas," said one senior aid official, who asked not to be named.
The number of visa applications awaiting approval for non-UN aid workers has skyrocketed in the last four months, and the percentage approved has plummeted, according to data maintained by Sudan's INGO Forum, which represents and advocates for international non-governmental organizations in the country.
The government didn't respond to specific questions about the blocking of visas. In the past, it has said that the majority of visa requests are approved.
In October, the Sudanese government pressured the UN to remove the top humanitarian aid official for Sudan's embattled Darfur region after the person traveled there without government authorization, three sources told Reuters. Requests for authorization had stalled, the sources said. The government told the UN it would throw the official out if he was not withdrawn, the sources said. The UN complied.
The government didn't respond to questions about the aid official's removal. A UN spokesperson said the organization doesn't comment on staff "working arrangements."