At least 11 people have been killed and 19 injured in an air strike on a Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital in northern Yemen.
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The Abs Rural Hospital which was hit at around 3:30pm local time, has treated 4,611 patients since MSF began to support it in July 2015.
The Abs hospital facilities, located in Hajjah province, have provided numerous medical services, assistance on emergencies, maternal health care, and dialysis to people in the region.
A border guards corporal became the latest Saudi casualty Monday, the interior ministry said in Riyadh. The Saudi-led coalition of mostly Persian Gulf countries has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at the Yemeni government’s request.
MSF said Monday’s attack was the fourth on one of its facilities in less than a year.
MSF was also in the news last October as U.S. aircraft hit a facility run by the agency in the war torn city of Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing 30 patients and staff.
Rights groups have blamed both sides in the conflict of abuses, particularly in failing to protect civilians.
“Hospitals and medical personnel are explicitly protected under worldwide humanitarian law and any attack directed against them, or against any civilian persons or infrastructure, is a serious violation of global humanitarian law”, Ban said in a statement.
On Saturday, another Saudi-led airstrike raided a children school in Haidan district in Saada province, killing at least 10 students and injuring 28 others, according to a MSF statement.
It stepped up air strikes this month after UN-mediated peace talks between the rebels and Yemen’s internationally backed government were suspended.
“MSF deeply regrets the consequences of this evacuation for our patients and our Yemeni Ministry of Health medical colleagues who will continue to work in the health facilities under unsafe conditions”, it said.
Doctors Without Borders announced on Thursday that it’s withdrawing from northern Yemen due to what the global aid group called “indiscriminate bombings and unreliable reassurances” from the Saudi-led coalition that’s fighting Shiite rebels in the country. “The violence in Yemen is having a disproportionate burden on civilians”.
A hospital in Saada was hit by a projectile this January, killing six people.
The coalition insists the target of the airstrikes was a militia training camp.
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Saudi Arabia, backed by the United States, has been bombing Yemen since March 2015, in a bid to reinstate the president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, and counter advances by Houthi rebels.
