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Doctors Without Borders to pull staff after Saudi-led airstrike on Yemen hospital

Xinhua, August 19, 2016 Adjust font size:

Doctors Without Borders has decided to evacuate its staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen after the latest Saudi-led air attack on its health facility, the group said late Thursday.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) decided to evacuate its obstetricians, paediatricians, surgeons and emergency room specialists from six Saada and Hajjah hospitals in northern Yemen, the international medical aid group said through its Twitter account.

"MSF is neither satisfied nor reassured by the Saudi-led coalition's (SLC's) statement that this attack was a mistake," said MSF, referring to Monday aerial bombing of Abs hospital in Hajjah governorate that killed at least 20 patients, including an MSF staff member.

The group condemned "the way all involved actors ... are carrying out indiscriminate attacks without any respect for civilians," considering its six hospitals unsafe for both patients and its staff.

Aerial bombings continued although MSF systematically shared the GPS coordinates of hospitals it runs with the parties involved in Yemen conflict, it said.

Since the SLC intervened in Yemen conflict in March 2015, allied airstrikes and fighting on the ground in Yemen have killed over 6,400 people, mostly civilians. The Monday attack was the fourth of its kind against MSF-run hospitals in northern Yemen.

Ninety-five airstrikes were conducted in the last 24 hours throughout Yemen's northern cities, including the capital Sanaa, causing substantial residential and public property damage, said the Houthi-controlled official Saba news agency.

The SLC fights in support of the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi against dominant Shiite Houthi rebels, who are backed by forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The coalition escalated its bombing campaign since United Nations-sponsored peace talks between Yemeni rival parties in Kuwait collapsed more than a week ago.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the airstrike against the hospital in a statement issued by his office on Wednesday, saying civilians including children are paying the heaviest price in the ongoing conflict in Yemen as schools and hospitals continue to be targeted.

Ban renewed his call to all parties involved in the conflict to immediately cease hostilities and return to direct talks.

Yemen has been gripped by a civil war since Houthis and Saleh's forces seized power and drove Hadi's government into exile in late 2014. Endi