Bulgaria suspends operation of embassy in Yemen’s capital Sana’a
Bulgaria’s Cabinet decided at a regular weekly meeting on December 11 to suspend the operation of the country’s embassy in Yemen’s capital city Sana’a as of January 1 2020.
A government statement said that the decision had been taken because of the security situation in Yemen, which was hampering the work of the embassy.
The embassy would resume when the security situation in Yemen had normalised, the statement said.
Yemen has been wracked by turmoil in the past eight years, which has descended into civil war and a grave humanitarian crisis, exacerbated by the presence of the al-Qaeda and “Islamic State” terrorist groups.
Military conflict has caused significant destruction of infrastructure, housing, medical facilities, schools, and power and water utilities, the US State Department said in a report. This limits the availability of electricity, clean water, and medical care. This instability often hampers the ability of humanitarian organisations to deliver critically needed food, medicine, and water.
Critical levels of violence, to include armed conflict, artillery shelling, and air strikes, persist throughout the country. There are also reports of landmines throughout Yemen. Cholera is present throughout Yemen.
The US, British, French, German, Italian and several other embassies in Sana’a suspended their operations in February 2015.
(Photo of the headquarters of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sofia: mfa.bg)
