‘266 injured Yemenis arrive in Jordan by air’

AMMAN — Two planes carrying 266 Yemenis injured in the conflict arrived in Amman on Sunday to receive treatment at the Kingdom’s private hospitals, Private Hospitals Association President Fawzi Hammouri said. 

The planes came from Aden, Hammouri told The Jordan Times, adding that this is the third batch of wounded Yemenis to come to Jordan for medical attention. 

Around 180 Yemenis arrived in Amman last month for medical treatment in addition to other individual cases, he said, noting that the overall number of wounded Yemenis is currently close to 500. 

The patients, Hammouri said, were dispatched to 10 private hospitals in Amman in order to avoid causing crowding at medical facilities, adding the association may expand the number of hospitals receiving Yemenis once the need arises.

Jordan is the preferred destination for people injured in armed conflicts in the Middle East due to reputable facilities and increasing expertise in offering treatment to war patients, he said. 

The Kingdom’s private hospitals have received large numbers of war injured patients over the past years from Libya, Palestine, Iraq and Syria, Hammouri explained. 

The majority of injured people coming from Yemen usually suffer from bone injuries, burns, and wounds to the stomach and chest caused by gunfire and explosions. 

“These are complicated cases requiring special treatment that can only be offered by experienced physicians,” he said, adding that Jordan is the region’s top medical destination. 

On treatment cost, Hammouri said that the vast majority of patients are still receiving medical care and hospitals have not issued their bills yet. 

Late last month, private hospitals and the Yemeni government agreed that Yemeni authorities will commit to paying the hospital bills. 

Hammouri said the Yemeni government has paid a small amount of the medical expenses with the arrival of the first batch of patients as a down payment, adding that the government will be transferring cash payments every two weeks. 

More than 4,500 people have been killed in the Yemen conflict, including hundreds of children, according to United Nations figures cited by Agence France-Presse.

Médecins Sans Frontières warned in August that health services in impoverished Yemen were “nearing collapse”, AFP reported.

Following a visit to Yemen in August, the top United Nations aid official, Stephen O’Brien, said the “scale of human suffering is almost incomprehensible”.