Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News
Showing posts with label Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF ). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF ). Show all posts

Monday, August 15, 2016

Air strike on MSF hospital in Yemen kills at least 11: aid group

Tue Aug 16, 2016 03H:56  GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME
by Leila Mohamed and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, Beirut


A Saudi-led coalition air strike hit a hospital operated by Medecins Sans Frontieres in northern Yemen on Monday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 19, the aid group said.
A Reuters witness at the scene of the attack in the Abs district of Hajja province said medics could not immediately evacuate the wounded because war planes continued to fly over the area and emergency workers feared more bombings.
"The location of the hospital was well known, and the hospital's GPS coordinates were repeatedly shared with all parties to the conflict, including the Saudi-led coalition," the aid group also known as Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement.
It said one of its staff members was among those killed when an aerial bomb hit the hospital compound, also killing 10 patients.
"This is the fourth attack against an MSF facility in less than 12 months," the statement said.
"Even with the recent United Nations resolution calling for an end to attacks on medical facilities and high-level declarations of commitment to international humanitarian law, nothing seems to be done to make parties involved in the conflict in Yemen to respect medical staff and patients."
A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Another air attack hit what MSF described as a school in neighboring Saada province on Saturday, killing 10 children. The coalition said the bombing had targeted a training facility run by Yemen's dominant Houthi movement.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the air strike on Sunday and called for a investigation, which the coalition said it would conduct, according to a statement sent to Reuters.

Dozens of air strikes have hit civilians in Yemen since a coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia began military operations in March 2015 to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power and roll back gains by the Iran-allied Houthis.
The Houthis and their allies in the General People's Congress (GPC) party headed by powerful ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh set up a ruling council this month to run the parts of the country they control.
In its first decree on Monday, the council declared itself the "highest authority in the state (which) exercises all the powers vested in the president."
Hadi's internationally recognized government and the United Nations have criticized the council, set up after U.N.-backed peace talks in Kuwait collapsed.
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Monday, February 15, 2016

Syria crisis: Strikes on hospitals 'war crimes'


  • 1 hour ago

by Leila Mohamed and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Beirut
Media captionDiplomatic correspondent James Robbins: "Russia is being widely blamed"
France and Turkey have said that air strikes on hospitals in northern Syria constitute war crimes.
Up to 50 people have been killed in missile attacks on schools and hospitals in the region, the UN said.
Turkey's foreign ministry blamed Russia for the attacks. Moscow is yet to respond to the allegations.
Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has cast doubt over plans to implement a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria.
Last week world powers agreed to work towards a selective truce in Syria, to begin later this week.
But in his first comments on the announcement, President Assad said such a ceasefire did not mean all the parties would put down their weapons.
"So far they say they want a ceasefire within a week," he said in televised comments.
"Who is capable of gathering all these conditions and requirements within a week?"
The UN said the series of raids in northern Syria "cast a shadow" on the prospects for a cessation.
Media captionMedecins Sans Frontieres charity suggests attacks on hospitals were 'deliberate'
At least 12 people were killed in Azaz and the surrounding area, with two hospitals and two schools reportedly hit.
In Maarat al-Numan, in Idlib province, a hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF ) was reduced to rubble.
Seven people were killed and another eight are still missing the medical charity said, calling it a "deliberate" attack.

What does the law say about bombing hospitals?

The aftermath of an airstrike in SyriaImage copyright AFP
Image caption MSF said the strike on its hospital left tens of thousands without medical care
  • International humanitarian law bans any attack on patients and medical personnel or indeed any attack on medical facilities, which are zones that must be respected under the rules of war
  • Even if combatants take refuge in them, they should not be attacked
  • Under rules established by the International Criminal Court, any such incident would probably result in too high a number of civilian casualties - what is called the rule of proportionality
Mego Terzian, president of MSF France, told Reuters "either the [Syrian] government or Russia" was responsible.
But the Syrian ambassador to Moscow Riad Haddad, said the US was to blame, a claim the Pentagon dismissed as "patently false".
"We have no reason to strike in Idlib, as Isil (so-called Islamic State) is not active there," spokesman Capt Jeff Davis said.
A second hospital in Maarat al-Numan was also hit, killing three people, activists said.

'Obvious war crimes'

France said it condemned the bombing of the MSF clinic in the strongest terms, with Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault saying such acts "constitute war crimes".
Turkey called the attacks "obvious" war crimes. Relations between Turkey and Russia are badly strained, with the pair on opposite sides of the Syrian conflict.
Russia has been backing the Syrian government in its offensive against rebels but says it only targets what it calls "terrorists".
Meanwhile, Kurdish forces have captured the town of Tal Rifaat from Islamist rebels in northern Syria, the monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
A map showing contested areas in northern Syria and Turkey
This was despite three days of shelling from Turkey, which views the YPG militia in Syria as allied to the outlawed PKK, which has carried out a decades-long campaign for autonomy in Turkey.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu promised the "harshest reaction" if Kurdish forces tried to take nearby Azaz.
The militia has taken advantage of the chaotic situation to extend its territory near the border, just as a Syrian government offensive threatens to surround Aleppo further south.
The UN envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, is in the Syrian capital Damascus as part of his effort to restart peace talks.
Almost five years of civil war in Syria have led to the deaths of more than 250,000 people. More than 11 million people have been displaced.

Related Topics

Syria's war

Background

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