At least seven dead after Saudi-led coalition bombs Yemen hospital

Airstrike hits Médecins Sans Frontières facility days after 10 children killed by coalition bombing in Saada province

At least seven people have been killed in an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition on a Yemeni hospital supported by Médecins Sans Frontières amid an escalation in the conflict following the collapse of peace talks.

The strike on Monday was the latest in an increasing number of attacks targeting places commonly used by civilians including hospitals where MSF doctors and nurses have been working. It followed similar airstrikes on a food factory and a school in the course of the last week.



MSF said the bombardment of the hospital, which is situated in the Abs district of the country’s Hajjah governorate, in northwestern Yemen, took place at around 15.45 local time. “Abs hospital has been supported by MSF since July 2015 and since then 4,611 patients have been treated at the facility,” a statement said.

While the organisation said it was too early to estimate the number of casualties, residents and local officials told Reuters that at least seven people had been killed and 13 wounded.

Yemen airstrike
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia, backed by its Sunni Arab allies as well as the US and Britain, has launched airstrikes in the neighbouring Yemen to reinstate the ousted president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, and counter advances by the Houthi rebels.

Houthi fighters, who belong to the Zaydi sect of Shia Islam, control the capital Sana’a and the western part of Yemen and are allied with the former president Abdullah Saleh, who led the country from 1990 to 2012. Hadi is currently living in exile in Riyadh.

Saudi planes bombed a potato factory last Tuesday in the first airstrikes since an often-violated ceasefire was put in place in April. That attack, in the capital’s Nahda district, which was launched after the collapse of UN-brokered peace talks earlier this month, killed 14 people, mostly women.

Another attack on Saturday, targeting a school located in the northern district of Haydan, killed 10 students who were all under 15, according to MSF. A double tap attack on the same day in the district of Razih, in the Sa’dah governorate, hit the house of school principle Ali Okri, killing his wife, four children and relatives.

The coalition has acknowledged a call for investigation by the UN chief Ban Ki-moon into Saturday’s school attack. “This investigation will be independent and will follow international standards. The JIAT [joint incidents assessment team] will make the results of its investigation public,” it read.

General Ahmed Assiri, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, has accused Houthi fighters of deploying military personnel in schools and hospitals.


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