Just weeks after a DWB hospital fell below a US airstrike in Afghanistan with doctors and patients still inside, another outpost in Saada, Yemen was destroyed today by airstrikes led by the Saudi coalition.
Advertisement
Controversy continues to mount following airstrikes that destroyed a Doctors Without Borders hospital in northern Yemen, an attack the Saudi government termed a “mistake”, but which Riyadh is now once more denying they had anything to do with.
This medical facility bombing is the latest in a string of civilian targets that have been hit during the seven-month “air bombing campaign” in the war-torn county.
In a report released Monday, the Washington Post reports that the attack was ordered by a U.S. Special Forces team on the ground in Kunduz, who knew the facility was a hospital, but thought it was under Taliban control.
On Tuesday the United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, condemned the hospital strike, calling for “a prompt, effective and impartial investigation in order to ensure accountability”.
People move boxes from a damaged truck outside a building hit by a Saudi-led air strike in Sanaa, October 25. But after the Saudis got involved in Yemeni affairs, he has come out of retirement to fight alongside the Houthi rebels.
“This attack is another illustration of a complete disregard for civilians in Yemen, where bombings have become a daily routine”, Boucenine said later in a statement by the group, also known by its French acronym MSF.
This is not the first time an MSF hospital has been bombed. They said the group were en route to treat patients killed by an earlier air strike. Twenty-two people died as a result of that attack, including twelve MSF hospital staff, Reuters reports. Coalition planes have dropped weapons to Islamist militias fighting artillery and heavy machine gun duels with the Houthis in civilian neighborhoods there.
Based on information gathered by the UN Human Rights Office, “the conflict in Yemen has caused an estimated 2,615 civilian death” since the Saudi-led coalition was launched on March 26.
The United Nations has designated Yemen as one of its highest-level humanitarian crises, alongside emergencies in South Sudan, Syria and Iraq.
At least 11 people were killed and 33 wounded in the central city over Monday night, including women, children and the elderly, as the rebels shelled residential areas.
Advertisement
In April, Human Rights Watch published what it said was evidence of the use of US-made cluster bombs by Saudi forces.
