Yemen: Saudi-led coalition ‘regrets’ MSF withdrawal

Monday’s airstrike was the fourth and deadliest attack on any clinic supported by Doctors Without Borders during the fighting, though other health facilities have also been attacked, according to a statement by the group.

The Saudi-led coalition stepped up its air strikes this month after UN-mediated peace talks between the rebels and Yemen’s internationally backed government were suspended.

“The coalition to support the legitimacy in Yemen expressed its deep regret over MSF decision to evacuate its staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen”, the coalition said in a statement, adding that it was seeking an urgent meeting with the aid group.

The demonstration – one of the biggest in Yemen since the civil war broke out past year – took place as the Saudi-led coalition backing exiled President Abd-Rabbou Mansour Hadi stepped up air strikes and fighting on the ground intensified.

Human Rights Watch said Friday that US Secretary of State John Kerry should raise concerns with Saudi Arabia about “repeated violations of the laws of war by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen that have killed many civilians”.

The withdrawal of MSF medical staff will leave northern Yemen in an even awful humanitarian situation than it is now in.

The difference is that the New York Times and US senators don’t call for cutting off aid to Israel, as they to Saudi Arabia.

“MSF is neither satisfied nor reassured by the SLC’s statement that this attack was a mistake”.

The attack followed strikes that hit two schools, killing at least 14 children, last Saturday.

“When jets target training camps, they can not distinguish between ages”, coalition spokesperson General Ahmed Assiri told AFP Sunday.

The Saudi-led coalition of mostly Persian Gulf countries has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at the request of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi since March 2015. The crisis quickly escalated into a multisided war, which allowed al Qaeda and ISIS – other enemies of the Houthis – to grow stronger in the country, strategically located at the opening to the Red Sea.

Saudi-led coalition air strikes on Monday struck a hospital in the rebel-held province of Hajja, killing 19 people and wounding 24.

MSF Director of Operations Raquel Ayora says, “The explanations given by the Saudi-led coalition are not enough reassurance for us”.

“If you talk to Yemeni Americans, they will tell you in Yemen this isn’t a Saudi bombing campaign, it’s a US bombing campaign”, Murphy said in June.

A respite in air strikes in Yemen in early 2016 was reported to have resulted in sharp reduction of staffs in June, just as Washington’s involvement in the day-to-day activities in advising an air campaign has come under heavy criticisms for causing more number of civilian casualties.

A senior Obama Administration official explained by email that USA support for the Saudi war effort in Yemen is not without limits.