At least 11 killed in airstrike in Yemen

The blast immediately killed nine people, including a MSF staff member, and two more patients died while being transferred to Al Jamhouri hospital. Five patients were hospitalised. Abs hospital, supported by MSF since July 2015, has been partially destroyed, and all the remaining patients and staff were evacuated. The blast occurred even though the hospital’s GPS coordinates were shared continuously and its location was well-known to all parties involved in the conflict-- including the Saudi-led coalition. “This is the fourth attack on an MSF facility in less than 12 months. Once again, we witnessed the tragic consequences of the bombing of a hospital. Once again, a fully functional hospital-- full of patients and MSF national and international staff members-- was bombed in a war that has shown no for respect medical facilities or patients. An aerial bomb hit the hospital compound, causing the death of 11 people”, says Teresa Sancristóval, desk manager for the Emergency Unit in Yemen. She added: “With the high level declarations of commitment to International Humanitarian Law, the United Nations has called upon all parties to end attacks on medical facilities but they seem to have done nothing to respect medical staff and patients.” Without action, these public gestures are meaningless.  People in Yemen continue to be killed and injured while seeking medical care. The violence in Yemen is having a disproportionate burden on civilians. We want to express our outrage at having to send condolences once more to the families of our staff member and patients who have lost their lives, who should have been safe inside a hospital, she went on to say. MSF asks all parties, and particularly to the Saudi-led coalition responsible for the attack, to guarantee that such attacks do not happen again. Since July 2015, 4,611 patients have been treated at the facility-- the main hospital functioning in the Western part of Hajjah Governorate. It had a 14 bed Emergency Room, a maternity unit and surgery unit. In the last weeks the hospital had seen an increase in wounded patients, mostly victims of recent clashes and the aerial campaign in the area. MSF is active in 11 hospitals and health centres, and providing support to another 18 hospitals or health centres in eight governorates: Aden, Al-Dhale’, Taiz, Saada, Amran, Hajjah, Ibb and Sana’a governorates. More than 2,000 MSF staff are currently working in Yemen.