The death of two Siamese babies has become a symbol of the war in Yemen

SANA (AFP) .- It takes only 15 minutes by car from al-Thawra Hospital to the international airport of Sanaa, Yemen's capital. However, two Siamese babies waiting to be evacuated urgently to the neighboring country,

Saudi Arabia

they died yesterday before being transferred.

Houthi rebels, who control the Yemeni capital, had called on the Saudi – led coalition to open the airport for the emergency evacuation of Siamese. The two babies had two heads but only one trunk, one kidney, two legs and two arms and needed urgent treatment.

Sana'a airport is closed to civilian traffic because of the coalition-imposed air blockade, which has been intervening militarily since 2015 against the Houthis in the country's government-led conflict

The United Nations

as one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.

Al Babili, head of the pediatric ward at al-Thawra Hospital in Sanaa, Wednesday urged the evacuation of babies "as soon as possible". The official explained that Yemen's health system is destroyed
because of the war and that it was impossible to operate the Siamese to separate them.

A Saudi medical team has stated that it is ready to take care of the two-week-old babies, but no additional information has been provided on this proposal.

The Houthis accused the coalition of being responsible for Siamese deaths by "their refusal to open the Sanaa airport," according to a statement released by rebel media.

Power struggle

As part of negotiations between UN-sponsored parties, the Houthis continue to press for the reopening of civilian traffic at Sanaa International Airport, a city they control almost as far north as the country for four years. after clashes between President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi's forces and the rebel Houthi movement.

In 2011, an uprising forced the then president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to cede power to Vice President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The political transition, supposed to bring stability to the country, failed and led to a complex power struggle between Saleh's supporters, the rebel Houthi movement, and Hadi's forces, backed by the Saudi-led coalition. Arabia.

Saleh, who led Yemen for more than 30 years, joined the Houthis to expel Hadi from the capital, Sanaa. Since 2014, Saleh and the Houthis controlled the capital. But in early December 2017, this alliance collapsed and resulted in Saleh's death.

With the death of Saleh, tensions in the region intensified and the civil war worsened. The biggest losers in this conflict were the civilians. The conflict in Yemen has killed an estimated 10,000 people, mostly civilians, and injured more than 60,000 since March 2015, according to a partial badessment by the World Health Organization (WHO). The deadly and continuous aerial bombing has caused the destruction of many cities, an imminent famine, deadly disease epidemics and one of the most serious humanitarian crises in recent years.