Houthi rebels condemn hospital airstrike: SANAA – Yemen’s Houthi rebels condemned the Saudi-led military coalition on Tuesday over an airstrike that hit a hospital, killing 14 people.
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The group said in May that at least 100 staff members, patients and caretakers were killed, and another 130 were wounded, in bombing and shelling attacks on more than 80 health centers run by or supported by Doctors Without Borders in 2015 and early 2016.
It stepped up air strikes this month after UN-mediated peace talks between the rebels and Yemen’s internationally backed government were suspended. Saudi officials, however, insist they have only attacked military locations, and that any civilian fatalities are the work of Houthis who wish to enact revenge on the government and those with whom they have formed coalitions.
The UN says the conflict has killed more than 6,400 people, mostly civilians, and displaced 2.5 million people from their homes.
Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk. It also says that the public health system in the southwestern province of Ta’izz is close to a total collapse as over half of its hospitals are inaccessible or severely damaged. In October of a year ago another MSF hospital in the northern Yemen city of Saada was hit in a strike also attributed to the coalition.
Medecins Sans Frontieres said an air strike on Monday hit one of its hospitals northwestern Hajja province and killed 11 people.
The 14-member coalition that was formed by Saudi Arabia – the Joint Incident Assessment Team (JIAT) – announced that they started an investigation on the bombing of the Abs hospital after worldwide condemnation.
Since then bombing has continued, with the coalition accused of deadly strikes on a school and a hospital over the last four days. “We want to express our outrage at having to send condolences once more to the families of our staff member and 10 patients, who should have been safe inside a hospital”, said Teresa Sancristóval, desk manager for the Emergency Unit in Yemen, in a statement.
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.
“Even with the recent United Nations resolution calling for an end to attacks on medical facilities and with the high level declarations of commitment to worldwide humanitarian law, nothing seems to be done to make parties involved in the conflict in Yemen respect medical staff and patients”, she said.
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.
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“I … had to consider the very real prospect that millions of other children would suffer grievously if, as was suggested to me, countries would defund many United Nations programs”, he said in defence of his decision to take the kingdom off the list.
