MSF to Demand Explanations From Saudi Coalition for Yemeni Hospital Bombing

The medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, or MSF) will demand an explanation for the bombing of its hospital in Yemen from the Saudi-led international coalition that was aware of the facility's location, a representative of the organization’s Paris office said Wednesday.

GENEVA (Sputnik) — Late on Monday, the MSF hospital in the northern Yemeni governorate of Saada was bombed while staff and patients were inside the building. It is assumed that the Saudi-led coalition, which has been carrying out airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen since March, is responsible for the incident, but it has denied the accusations.

"We are going to ask for explanations, because the GPS coordinates of the district's hospital and other infrastructure had been transmitted to the coalition to make sure there was no problem," Laurent Sury told RIA Novosti in an interview.

There is only one party that is conducting airstrikes in Yemen, namely, a coalition of Arab states, for this reason they are being asked for clarification on the incident, he stated.

According to Sury, the MSF hospital was struck by at least six targeted airstrikes. Most of its buildings were effectively destroyed, while a further two bombs did not explode and remain on the grounds of the medical institution.

The MSF will make a decision on whether to call for an independent commission into the hospital attack after the receipt of an explanation on the incident from the anti-Houthi coalition, Sury said.

This is the second time this month that a medical facility run by the international health charity MSF has been bombed. Thirty people, including 12 MSF staff, died after a US airstrike destroyed a crowded MSF hospital in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz on October 3.