Russian planes evacuate over 300 people from war-torn Yemen

Two Russian planes have evacuated over 300 people, including Russians and foreign citizens from Yemen, as thousands of foreign nationals are struggling to leave the conflict-ridden country.

Two planes flew out of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, with each aircraft carrying about 150 passengers. The airplanes are firstly heading to Cairo, before carrying onto Moscow, which will be their final destination, RT’s Paula Slier reports. One of the planes has already touched down in the Egyptian capital and is already bound for Moscow.

“The entire journey took around 13 hours in total,” Slier said, who was aboard one of the planes with those being evacuated. “It was a very organized evacuation. People have come from early in the morning, in fact, some of them were waiting since yesterday.”

While on board, Paula Slier spoke to some of the people fleeing Yemen. An Italian national told her that he had not been able to leave his hotel for the past two weeks.

Another American who was rescued, said his countrymen, who are trapped inside Yemen, feel “they are being treated as second-class citizens” because Washington refuses to send US-sponsored air flights into the country. He said it was “a shame”, adding that it was “quite ironic” that they were rescued by Russian planes.

source: http://rt.com/news/249053-russia-planes-evacuate-yemen/

Russian planes evacuate over 300 people from war-torn Yemen