A hospital in north Yemen run by medical aid group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been bombed in Saudi-led air strikes, wrecking the facility and lightly wounding two staff members, the group said on Tuesday.
A Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in Yemen’s civil war in March to try to restore its government after it was toppled by Iran-allied Houthi forces, but a mounting civilian death toll has alarmed human rights groups.
“Our hospital in the Heedan district of Saada governorate was hit several times. Fortunately, the first hit damaged the operations theatre while it was empty and the staff were busy with people in the emergency room. They just had time to run off as another missile hit the maternity ward,” MSF country director Hassan Boucenine told Reuters by telephone from Yemen.
“It could be a mistake, but the fact of the matter is it’s a war crime. There’s no reason to target a hospital. We provided [the coalition] with all of our GPS co-ordinates about two weeks ago,” he said. At least two staff members were hurt by flying debris, according to Mr Boucenine.
The air raids occurred on Monday night in north Yemen’s Saada province, a region controlled by Houthi forces. The state news agency Saba, run by the Houthis, said other air strikes hit a nearby girls school and damaged several civilian homes. It was not immediately possible to confirm that report.
The Saudi-led coalition later denied that its planes had bombed the hospital. Asked if coalition jets had hit the hospital, Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri said in an electronic message: “Not at all.” Mr Asseri said coalition jets had been in action in Saada governorate, however. Asked if he knew what had caused the blast, Mr Asseri said: “We cannot tell without investigation.”
Medical sources and a local official said 13 Houthi fighters and six fighters loyal to Yemeni president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi were killed on Tuesday in fighting, including air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition, in the southwestern city of Taiz.
London-based rights group Amnesty International, which has recommended an arms embargo on coalition states citing repeated bombing of Yemeni civilians, said the "apparently deliberate targeting" and destruction of the hospital might also amount to a war crime.
Unicef said the hospital in Saada was the 39th health centre hit in Yemen since March. “More children in Yemen may well die from a lack of medicines and healthcare than from bullets and bombs,” executive director Anthony Lake said in a statement.
Twenty-two people including 12 MSF staff were killed when an MSF hospital was hit by an American air strike in Kunduz in northern Afghanistan on October 3rd. US president Barack Obama apologised for that attack, but MSF continues to call for an independent humanitarian commission to investigate what it calls a war crime.
Reuters