Flights are moving again at Aden International Airport, the main gateway into southern Yemen, after crews spent a tense night patching a runway torn up by Houthi missiles. Transport Minister Mohsen Haidara al-Omari toured the site on Thursday and declared operations back to normal, saying airlines had been told to resume services and that schedules were being reworked.
The strike came on Wednesday. Officials in Aden reported that a pair of ballistic missiles hit the grounds, leaving two civilians hurt and the runway torn up. Traffic stopped at once, and hundreds of travelers, including people waiting for medical flights, streamed out of the terminal. Shortly beforehand, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree had posted what he called a “final” evacuation warning, alleging without evidence that a Saudi military cargo plane was unloading weapons there.
Aid groups rely heavily on the airport. A plane carrying humanitarian staff to Amman had left safely earlier that morning, and the UN migration agency said its people passing through the city were accounted for. Medecins Sans Frontieres said one of its own aircraft had been about to take off days earlier when a missile landed nearby and workers were sent to shelter, and it called safe access to Aden crucial for getting staff and medical supplies into the south.
The attack reflects a sharp escalation. Government forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition launched an offensive in early October aimed at eventually retaking the capital, Sanaa, while coalition jets have stepped up raids and the Iran-aligned Houthis have answered with missiles and drones. Whatever remained of the UN-mediated ceasefire from 2022 has now collapsed.
Yemen’s war dates back to 2014, when the Houthis drove the government out of Sanaa. Relief agencies warn that the new round of violence is rapidly pushing an already desperate population closer to the edge.
