After a succession of deadly bombardments targeting hospitals, MSF decided to evacuate its medical staff from six establishments in northern Yemen.
This is the bombardment too many. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) will evacuate its staff from hospitals in northern Yemen, in the governorates of Saada and Hajjah. After new deadly bombings, the NGO announced on Thursday its withdrawal from six Yemeni hospitals.
The last attack was on August 15. The gunfire destroyed Abs hospital and killed 19 people; 24 others were also injured. This is the “fourth attack on a healthcare facility supported by MSF during this war. It is also the most deadly. And countless attacks have been perpetrated on other structures and health services, ”denounces the NGO in a press release.
The coalition singled out
MSF has nevertheless done everything to limit these attacks. Over the past eight months, the NGO “has met with high-ranking coalition officials, twice in Riyadh, to provide humanitarian and medical assistance to the Yemeni population and to obtain assurances that attacks on hospitals would cease. However, the aerial bombardments continued while MSF had systematically communicated to the parties to the conflict the GPS coordinates of the hospitals where its teams work ”, specifies the NGO.
In vain, then. On August 6, peace talks in Kuwait between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis were suspended. Since then, “the coalition has again carried out an intense air campaign in northern Yemen” and it does not seem to spare the hospitals.
The Arab coalition immediately reacted to MSF’s announcement, trying to detain its health professionals who work in Yemeni hospitals. “We urgently want discussions with MSF on the means to redress this situation together”, she declared, adding that she appreciated the work carried out by the NGO “in difficult conditions”.
“No longer possible to trust”
Not sure that this convinces MSF, which had already obtained guarantees that the healthcare structures it supports would be spared. “Since it is no longer possible to trust the ability of the coalition to avoid deadly attacks, MSF believes that the hospitals located in the governorates of Saada and Hajjah offer no safety to patients and staff.”
“The decision to evacuate staff, including obstetricians, pediatricians, surgeons and emergency physicians, is never taken lightly, but in the absence of credible assurances that the parties to the conflict will respect the protected status of care structures, nursing staff and patients, there are no other solutions ”, deplores the NGO.
The six establishments affected by the evacuations are the hospitals of Haydan, Razeh, Al Gamouri and Yasnim (governorate of Saada) and the hospitals of Abs and Al Gamouri (governorate of Hajjah). Local staff will continue to work in these centers, under particularly difficult conditions. “The fact that healthcare workers, the sick and the wounded are being killed inside a hospital says a lot about the cruelty and inhumanity of this war,” which has been going on for a year and a half in the country.
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