Plane leaves Yemen capital for Saudi, first since 2016

The first commercial flight from Yemen's  capital to Saudi Arabia since 2016 took off carrying hajj pilgrims on Saturday, in the latest sign of easing tensions after years of war.

A Yemenia Airways plane carrying 277 travellers departed at around 8 pm (1700 GMT), an official told AFP, seven years since Sanaa's international airport was blockaded by the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed Huthi rebels.

"Hopefully, the blockade will end and the airport will remain open. We are very happy and relieved, and I cannot describe the feeling," said Mohammad Askar, one of the travellers.

The flight is the first since Sanaa's airport was closed by the coalition blockade in August 2016, more than a year into the Saudi-led military campaign to dislodge the Huthis.

Hundreds of thousands of people have died in the fighting or from indirect causes such as lack of food or water in what the United Nations calls one of the world's biggest humanitarian crises.

But despite coalition bombing raids and ground clashes, the Huthis, who seized control of Sanaa in 2014 ousting the internationally recognised government, rule over large swathes of the country.