The Saudi-led coalition bombing rebels in Yemen launched a probe on Tuesday following global condemnation of an air raid that Doctors Without Borders said killed 11 people at a hospital it supports.
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The worldwide aid group said in a statement on Thursday that an attack this week on a hospital it supported in the area had killed 19 people and wounded 24.
A Reuters witness at the scene of the attack in the Abs district of Hajja province said medics could not immediately evacuate the wounded because war planes continued to fly over the area and emergency workers feared more bombings.
In Yemen, meanwhile, authorities blamed the Saudi-led coalition for an airstrike that killed nine family members at a residence east of the capital, Sana’a. Once again, a fully functional hospital full of patients and MSF national and worldwide staff members, was bombed in a war that has shown no respect for medical facilities or patients.
The Saudi-led coalition carrying out airstrikes in Yemen said Tuesday it is aware of the hospital strike and will look into it.
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.
Sajjad Mohammad Sajid, Oxfam Yemen country director, said: “This was a horrific attack killing sick and injured people and the medical staff desperately trying to help them”.
“Civilians, including children, are paying the heaviest price in the ongoing conflict, as civilian infrastructure, such as schools and hospitals, continue to be hit”, he said.
This is the aftermath of an air strike on a hospital facility run by medical aid group MSF in northern Yemen.
The coalition launched the bombing campaign in March past year after Shi’ite Huthi rebels seized large parts of Yemen.
A team from coalition “has seen the UN Secretary General’s call for an investigation” into MSF’s claim and is initiating a probe, said the group known as the Joint Incidents Assessment Team.
The war in Yemen has left a security vacuum throughout parts of the country.
Doctors Without Borders, which operates in conflict zones around the world, has had a number of its facilities attacked over the past year.
Health officials in Sanaa confirmed the toll.
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The Sanaa-based civil aviation authority Tuesday said passenger flights to the airport remained suspended.
