Oman’s humanitarian aid to Yemen also pragmatic
Providing assistance to Yemenis requires Oman to maintain a low profile and strike a political balance with its giant neighbor to the northwest, Saudi Arabia.
As Yemen’s civil war nears its sixth year in March, Oman continues to provide humanitarian assistance to Yemenis to alleviate their suffering, maintain stability along its border and enhance historical cross-border ties.
“Omanis look at Yemenis as human beings without trying to be superior,” said Ahmed Yahya Ahmed, who traveled in 2018 from Yemen to Sultan Qaboos Hospital in Salalah, Oman, to seek medical treatment for his sick father.
An Omani community-based initiative known as White Hands covered his day-to-day expenses and the cost of the treatment, about $3,900. In 2019 alone, more than 70 Yemenis hospitalized in Salalah benefited from the group’s assistance.
Like Ahmed, 80% of Yemenis are in dire need of assistance and thus see the Sultanate of Oman as the only gate to the outside world. Yemen’s only other land border is with Saudi Arabia — which is leading a military intervention against Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The war has taken more than 100,000 lives since 2015.
