Humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) announced that it will be withdrawing staff from hospitals in northern Yemen, following yet another Saudi-coalition air strike on one of its buildings.
Advertisement
In another development, Saudi officials said one person had been killed and six others injured in cross-border rocket fire from Yemen that hit the city of Najran.
Monday’s bombing of Abs hospital drew global condemnation, prompting the coalition to announce an investigation into the attack.
MSF said it had shared the hospital’s Global Positioning System coordinates with all parties involved in the conflict yet itsfacilities have come under attack.
Saudi state-run media reported the coalition has set up an independent team to investigate reports of civilian casualties.
“MSF is neither satisfied nor reassured by the SLC’s [Saudi-led coalition] statement that this attack was a mistake”.
“By targeting schools and hospitals, the Saudis have entered a unsafe level of measures against humanity to the extent where global relief workers and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have not been spared from the vengeful attacks of Saudi-led coalition”. “We are seeking urgent discussions with MSF to understand how we can work together to resolve this situation”.
Rights groups and United Nations agencies have expressed concern that even if the fighting is brought to an end, the country will still grapple with a brutal legacy of unexploded munitions, including bombs dropped by Saudi-led warplanes in and around the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, and in the Houthis’ northern heartland.
In March of past year, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at reversing Houthi military gains and propping up the country’s Saudi-backed government.
Since the escalation of the conflict almost two years ago, more than 6,500 civilians have been killed and a further 32,000 injured, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council. The charity said it was still supporting the facilities with “medications, money and incentives” for the government staff.
“The Group of Ambassadors repeats its concern that actions taken by elements of the General People’s Congress and the Houthis as well as their supporters are making the search for a peaceful solution more hard”, the envoys added in a statement posted on the USA embassy’s Facebook page.
Two children amid the rubble of a house destroyed by a Saudi-led air strike in Sanaa, Aug. 11.
Hanan, who does not take sides in Yemen’s internal conflicts, nonetheless agrees that Western support for the Saudi-led Coalition has only made life worse for many in Yemen.
The JCPC had also largely wrapped up an earlier effort to advise the Saudi-led coalition on steps to prevent civilian casualties, the Pentagon said.
Advertisement
“When its repeated air strikes that have now killed children, doctors, newlyweds, patients, at some point you just have to say: either Saudi Arabia is not listening to the United States or they just don’t care”, Lieu said.
