A Saudi-led coalition air strike hit a hospital operated by Medecins Sans Frontieres in northern Yemen on Monday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 19, the aid group said.
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– An airstrike by a USA -backed Saudi-led military coalition struck a Doctors Without Borders hospital in northwestern Yemen on Monday, the latest bombing of a civilian site since a peace deal between the nation’s warring factions collapsed last week.
“Although we do not know the cause of this incident, it underlines the risk taken by humanitarian workers on the ground”, Stephen Ryan said.
A spokesman for the coalition did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Dozens of air strikes have hit civilians since a coalition of Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, began military operations past year.
At the time of the airstrike, MSF said there were 23 patients in the surgery ward, 25 in the maternity ward, 13 newborns and 12 patients in the pediatric ward.
“Sanaa worldwide airport will be reopened to United Nations flights and those of other agencies from Monday”, a coalition statement said. Three Yemeni staff members of Doctors Without Borders were among those who lost their lives.
Saudi Arabian media said Saturday that a senior Houthi leader was killed in an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition in Saada.
Monday’s Saudi-led coalition strike on Abs hospital in the rebel-held province of Hajja was the fourth and deadliest attack yet on an MSF facility in war-torn Yemen, according to the charity.
The coalition assessment team has opened an investigation into these reports as a matter of urgency and is seeking additional information, in particular from MSF, the statement said.
Since the conflict started 17 months ago, MSF – one of the few global organizations operating in Yemen – has had a presence in 11 hospitals and health care centers and has provided support to 18 hospitals around the country.
It had been closed since last Tuesday, when the coalition resumed air strikes around Sanaa following the breakdown of UN-brokered peace talks between the Yemeni government and rebels.
“MSF is neither satisfied nor reassured by the Saudi-led coalition’s statement that this attack was a mistake”.
Rights groups and United Nations agencies say that more than 9,000 people have been killed since the Yemen war escalated with the Saudi-led airstrikes.
As criticism of the civilian death toll from its bombing campaign has mounted, the coalition has set up a standing investigation team.
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The coalition denied targeting a school in Haydan, instead saying that it had bombed a camp at which the Houthis were training child soldiers.
