Saudis Are Turning Hospitals and Clinics into Piles of Ruins in Yemen

Rasa - Aid agencies and medical staff on the ground in Hodeida are begging the international community to intervene to stop the violence in the besieged Yemeni city as Saudi Arabia and its coalition forces struggle to gain the upper hand in a lost war.

News ID: 441465

Date: 10 November 2018 - 13:45

RNA - According to the doctors and nurses of the barely functioning al-Olafi Hospital, “The violence is unbearable. We’re surrounded by strikes from the air, sea and land. The hospital treats the hungry and people injured in airstrikes day in and day out, but there is a serious shortage of medicine. Even if we try our hardest we cannot treat patients because we lack the necessities for basic operations.”

Sadly, that’s not all. In a joint statement on Thursday, several international aid agencies condemned the intense new violence in Hodeida, calling it a “deeply disturbing development”, and calling on the Saudi regime to cease the air strikes and fighting, and engage with the UN-sponsored peace process.

This is while a new round of peace talks to end the war – which has killed an estimated 56,000 people and left 14 million on the brink of starvation – are scheduled for early December in Sweden.

Whatever this is, the Saudi-led escalation does not help efforts to launch the political process. No one wants to see a catastrophe in Hodeida, much less across the country, where many other hospitals are struggling under the same terrible conditions.

After all, the Saudis cannot target hospitals and medical centers without US support which includes refueling their warplanes midair. US forces provide free tutorials in Yemen on how to bomb hospitals and clinics, kill doctors, nurses and patients, and get away with it.

And Saudi leaders have already learned everything. They have bombed and continue to target Yemeni hospitals in clear violation of international law. This includes bombing Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospitals, as well as killing and wounding medical staff and patients.

The Saudis and their partners are responsible for these bombings and they should be booked. To substantiate, the MSF says, "On Oct. 27, Haydan hospital was destroyed by an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition, and on Dec. 3 a health centre in Taiz was also hit by the coalition, killing and wounding several people."

According to Fars News Agancy, this is while the Saudis are regularly informed of the GPS coordinates of the medical sites where MSF works. So there is no way the Saudis with the capacity to carry out an airstrike or launch a rocket would not have known that these were functioning health facilities providing critical services and supported by MSF.

Under international humanitarian law, patients and medical facilities must be respected. This is while in violation of international humanitarian law, Saudi warplanes continue to target Yemeni hospitals. The siege means the only functioning hospital in Hodeida is also unable to have access to any medicine.

The neutrality of healthcare facilities and staff must be respected. They should never be attacked, and surgical and medical supplies should never be blocked from reaching the only hospital in Hodeida – something the US-backed Saudi-led invading forces have been doing for months in flagrant violation of international law.

The Saudis know fully well that their indiscriminate and at times deliberate airstrikes target hospitals and clinics – just as their chief military patron and supplier, the US, knows that it destroyed several hospitals in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. It is therefore crucial for the international civil society to intervene. Before resumption of any peace talks, and before anything else, the UN is expected to force the Saudis to stop their indiscriminate airstrikes and immediately lift the illegal siege of Hodeida. There is no other way to send in medicine.

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