“Hospitals and medical personnel are explicitly protected under global humanitarian law and any attack directed against them, or against any civilian persons or infrastructure, is a serious violation of worldwide humanitarian law”, Ban said in a statement.
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Yemen has been targeted by airstrikes since March of 2015 when a coalition of Gulf monarchies led by Saudi Arabia began military operations, trying to restore the government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Haddi.
Najran, Riyadh-Seven Saudis and residents were killed in the southern Saudi city of Najran on Tuesday in a cross-border shelling from Yemen, after accusations were made by global organizations against the Arab coalition of targeting civilians in 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.
But for the Saudi coalition, bombing medical facilities has become business as usual.
Earlier in the day, Saudi fighter jets struck a vehicle as it was traveling along a road in the Abs district of the northern Yemeni province of Hajjah, leaving five people dead.
A 14-member team set up by the coalition to investigate allegations of wrongdoing said it had opened an inquiry into reports that the school was hit and would make its findings public.
The global humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French name Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said on Monday that the Abs Hospital located in the northern Hajjeh province was hit by an airstrike at 3.45 p.m. All parties to this conflict have to stop indiscriminate attacks on civilians and respect International Humanitarian Law.
At least 11 people have died following a bombing by the Saudi-led coalition on a Yemeni hospital supported by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). “We are waiting for the results of the investigation”, he said.
In a statement Monday, MSF decried the “tragic consequences” of the attack on a “fully-functional hospital full of patients”. Both the U.S. and Britain are aiding the Saudi-led coalition which have been criticised for targeting places commonly used by civilians.
The group said the strike hit near the Houthi rebel stronghold of Saada, where teams were still attending to the wounded. “They have nothing to do with this conflict, they are not any danger”, Swangin said.
The conflict has killed at over 6,500 people and unleashed a humanitarian crisis in one of the world’s poorest countries. They seized the capital, Sana’a, and drove Hadi southwards to the port city of Aden. Fighting has picked up across the country after peace talks in Kuwait collapsed earlier this month.
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In December, the coalition bombed another MSF medical facility in the southern city of Ta’iz. He predicted that the government would be exporting oil within a few weeks and natural gas within months.
