Doctors Without Borders hospital bombed in Yemen

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Doctors Without Borders hospital bombed in Yemen

In this Friday, Oct. 16, 2015, file photo, Christopher Stokes, the general director of the medical charity, Doctors Without Borders, which is also known by its French abbreviation MSF, stands near the charred remains of the organizations' hospital, after it was hit by a U.S. airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Stokes says the “extensive, quite precise destruction” of the bombing raid casts doubt on American military assertions that it was a mistake. (Najim Rahim via AP)

NEW YORK - Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday one of its health centres in northern Yemen was bombed overnight by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

The group, known officially as Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF, said the health centre in the Haydan district of Yemen’s Saada province, bordering Saudi Arabia, was targeted with at least two airstrikes at about 11 p.m. Monday. 

About 12 patients and MSF staff members were inside the health centre at the time of the strike and successfully evacuated between the two strikes. One patient was burned and scratched, and another was in critical condition because of the hasty evacuation.

MSF said it had supplied the health centre’s coordinates to the Saudi Arabian coalition, which has been fighting against insurgent Houthi rebels in Yemen for about seven months. The health center is one of few operating medical facilities in Saada.

The bombing incident in Yemen follows the U.S. bombing of an MSF medical facility in Afghanistan, where at least 30 patients and staff members died. MSF has called for the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission, created under the Geneva Conventions, to investigate.

“It is unacceptable that the bombing of a hospital and the killing of staff and patients can be dismissed as collateral damage or brushed aside as a mistake,” MSF International President Dr. Joanne Liu recently said at a press conference. “This was not just an attack on our hospital. It was an attack on the Geneva Conventions. This cannot be tolerated.” The Saudi-led coalition of Arab states launched an air campaign against Houthi rebels and their allies in late March in support of President Abd-Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

Saada is the stronghold of the Iran-backed Houthis who overran the capital unopposed in September 2014, before advancing on several Yemeni provinces.

Air raids have been blamed for scores of civilians casualties since March.

At UN Headquarters in New York, a U.N. spokesman, responding to questions about the raid, said all parties to the conflict in Yemen should avoid civilian casualties.