Charity Voices Anger After Coalition Supported By Britain Bombs Hospitals In Yemen
“Is this the new normal: a Médecins Sans Frontières hospital bombed every month?” asked one worker.
The Yemeni Football Association building, which was damaged in a Saudi-led air strike, in Sanaa on 31 May 2015.
Mohamed Al-Sayaghi / Reuters
The British government has been strongly criticised by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, aka Doctors Without Borders) after a number of the charity's health facilities came under attack from Saudi-led airstrikes in recent months.
MSF has called on the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC) to conduct an independent investigation into an attack on a hospital on 10 January.
In the latest attack, on 21 January, an MSF ambulance was hit by an airstrike and its driver killed as it arrived at Al Goumoury Hospital. The MSF-supported hospital itself had also been bombed.
A total of 40 casualties and five deaths have been reported, with numbers likely to rise in the coming days, Vickie Hawkins, executive director of MSF UK, told BuzzFeed News.
It is the fourth attack in recent months, prompting a "fear – backed up by months of evidence – that health facilities are a target in Yemen".
On 26 October last year, fighter jets from the Saudi-led coalition repeatedly bombed a hospital in Haydan district, Saada province.
On 2 December, an MSF mobile clinic was hit by an airstrike, wounding eight people and killing one, and in the attack on 10 January, which the MSF wants investigated, the Shiara Hospital, which it supports, was bombed. Six people were killed and seven were injured.
"Healthcare workers in Yemen must risk their lives just to attend the wounded," Hawkins said.
An alliance of Gulf Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia has been bombing Yemen's Houthi militia and allied army units loyal to the ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh since 26 March.
Children shout slogans during an anti-Saudi protest in Sanaa, Yemen, on 6 June 2015.
Khaled Abdullah Ali Al Mahdi / Reuters
As well as supplying some of the bombs used for airstrikes, British troops are also helping to identify targets for the campaign.
Last week the UK's foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, said the government hadn't found any "deliberate" breaches of humanitarian law – implying the bombings of medical facilities were accidents.
His statement has provoked outrage within the charity.
Hawkins told BuzzFeed News: "The UK is assisting in the deliberate construction of a narrative that creates a climate of impunity by just dismissing these attacks as mistakes. MSF is calling on the UK government to reiterate its full support to international humanitarian law (IHL), including within any coalition that it supports. We are urging the UK government to support full and transparent investigations into any possible breaches of international humanitarian law."
Joanne Liu, international president of MSF, said: "Is this the new normal: an MSF hospital bombed every month? How many other hospitals are being attacked in Yemen and other conflict zones, run by medical staff who do not have the platform that MSF does to speak out?"
Raquel Ayora, MSF director of operations, said: "This implies that mistakenly bombing a protected hospital would be tolerable. This logic is offensive and irresponsible."
In December, an analysis of Britain's exports to Saudi Arabia commissioned by Amnesty International and Saferworld found Britain was breaking national, EU, and international law and policy in supplying weapons.
It is not known if British bombs were used in any of the attacks. BuzzFeed News recently reported on the fact that Britain had sold the country just over £1 billion worth of bombs between July and September in 2015.
It has overseen the sale of over £5.6 billion of military licences to Saudi Arabia since 2010.