Yemen: Another MSF supported hospital bombed
Sana’a – An MSF supported hospital has been hit by a projectile in Northern Yemen causing at least four dead and 10 injured and the collapse of several buildings of the medical facility. Three of the injured are MSF staff, two in critical condition.
According to our staff on the ground, at 09:20 one projectile impacted the Shiara Hospital in Razeh district, where MSF has been working since November 2015. MSF cannot confirm the origin of the attack, but planes were seen flying over the facility at the time. At least one more projectile fell near the hospital. The numbers of casualties could rise as there could still be people trapped in the rubble. All staff and patients have evacuated and patients are being transferred to Al Goumoury hospital in Saada, also supported by MSF.
“All warring parties, including the Saudi led coalition (SLC), are regularly informed of the GPS coordinates of the medical sites where MSF works and we are in constant dialogue with them to ensure that they understand the severity of the humanitarian consequences of the conflict and the need to respect the provision of medical services”, says Raquel Ayora Director of Operations. “There is no way that anyone with the capacity to carry out an airstrike or launch a rocket would not have known that the Shiara Hospital was a functioning health facility providing critical services and supported by MSF”.
Full disclosure: MSF–Doctors Without Borders in English–is my favorite humanitarian organization. When I heard about this, I felt compelled to put some money into their kitty. You should not in any way interpret this is as a solicitation for my favorite charity, merely transparency in admitting that I take news like this personally. Unless, of course, you have a shred of decency and feel the same outrage and obligation. But that’s between you and your mortal soul.
As far as this incident goes, somebody with a warplane means one of the state actors in the Yemen civil war. It’s hard to charge an insurgent with war crimes, but soldiers employed by a government who commit war crimes ought to be another matter. It’s that thing about associating governments with a chain of command and the rule of law, ya know? It sounds like the Saudis in this incident, and it was the US in the earlier hospital bombing in Afghanistan. I have yet to see any accountability from anybody. I have a problem with that.