Damage is seen inside a hospital operated by Medecins Sans Frontieres after it was hit by a Saudi-led coalition airstrike in the Abs district of Hajja province, Yemen, Aug. 16, 2016. In January, at least five people were killed and 10 others, including three Doctors Without Borders members, were injured when a hospital was hit in northern Yemen.
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Amnesty International said the incident was an “atrocious attack that could amount to a war crime”.
“The secretary general notes with dismay that civilians, including children, continue to bear the brunt of increased fighting and military operations in Yemen”, a United Nations statement said.
On Saturday 10 children were killed in an attack on a school in neighbouring Saada province, according to MSF.
Projectiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels have killed seven civilians in the southern Saudi city of Najran, Saudi state television has reported.
“Medical teams have not yet been able to enter the hospital”, he said in a statement carried by the rebel sabanews.net website, adding that coalition warplanes were still flying over the area.
Saudi-led coalition air strikes on a Yemen hospital killed six people on Tuesday (Aug 16), health sources said, less than two days after similar raids killed 10 children and sparked worldwide concern.
MSF calls on all parties, and particularly the Saudi-led coalition responsible for the attack, to guarantee that such attacks do not happen again.
The JIAT will “obtain more information from MSF and will publicly announce the findings” of the probe, it said.
The team is also investigating Saturday’s strikes in the rebels’ northern stronghold of Saada, which MSF said hit a school but the coalition claimed targeted a rebel training camp with child soldiers.
The UN says more than 6,500 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since last March and more than 80 percent of the population needs humanitarian aid.
The so-called Supreme Political Council condemned the hospital strike in a statement on the rebels’ sabanews.net website, blaming the worldwide community whose “silence has encouraged the coalition.to commit further massacres”.
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Doctors Without Borders, which operates in conflict zones around the world, has faced attacks on a number of its facilities over the past year. 23 women were hospitalized in the maternity ward as well as 13 newborns. The US government has apologized for the attack and paid compensation to survivors and the families of those killed. “The circumstances of this attack must be thoroughly and independently investigated”, said Magdalena Mughrabi, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa Amnesty’s global program.
