india

Updated: Jul 24, 2019 01:01 IST

India and the United Arab Emirates have helped facilitate the treatment of more than 700 people, including military personnel, wounded in the civil war in Yemen, with Indian doctors performing life-saving procedures and helping rehabilitate seriously injured persons. 

The UAE has fully funded the treatment of the Yemeni nationals while India has facilitated the process by issuing visas to the injured people and those accompanying them, an official of Delhi-based VPS Medeor Hospitals, where most of the patients were treated, said on Tuesday. 

“This is part of the cooperation between healthcare organisations in India and the UAE.  We sent the injured to India because of the excellence in healthcare and a majority of them were sent to India,” said UAE ambassador Ahmed al-Banna. 

The UAE is a key partner in the Saudi-led military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to back the internationally-recognised government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi against Houthi rebels aligned with Iran. 

Al-Banna said the coalition is doing its best to ensure there were no civilian casualties but “sometimes it happens”.  However, members of government militias and military personnel outnumbered the civilians sent to India for treatment, he said.  So far, 729 injured Yemeni nationals and 325 people accompanying them had been sent to India from June 2016 to December 2018. 

More than 600 people were treated by Medeor Hospitals, which is currently looking after another batch of 28 injured.  Most of them had blast and bullet injuries. 

Doctors treating the injured said their task was complicated by the fact that most of the patients had already undergone multiple surgeries and their wounds had affected their limbs and joints. 

The UAE is preparing to bring a fresh batch of injured in the coming weeks.