Hospital in Saada province hit repeatedly despite GPS coordinates being given to Saudi-led coalition two weeks ago, says MSF country director

A Saudi-led coalition airstrike has hit a Médecins Sans Frontières hospital in Yemen, the latest bombing of a civilian target in the seven-month air campaign in the country.

“Our hospital in the Heedan district of Saada governorate was hit several times. Fortunately, the first hit damaged the operations theatre while it was empty and the staff were busy with people in the emergency room. They just had time to run off as another missile hit the maternity ward,” MSF country director Hassan Boucenine told Reuters.

“It could be a mistake, but the fact of the matter is it’s a war crime. There’s no reason to target a hospital. We provided [the coalition] with all of our GPS coordinates about two weeks ago,” he said. At least two staff members were hurt by flying debris, according to Boucenine.

MSF International (@MSF) First photos for our health facility in Haydan #Saada after the airstrikes that took place last night. #Yemen pic.twitter.com/P2mr7sgp63

About 5,600 people have been killed in Yemen’s civil war, according to the World Health Organisation. The Saudi-led coalition is fighting the Houthis to drive them from the capital, Sana’a, and other areas they captured last year, and to restore the internationally recognised president, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.



Yemen was the poorest country in the Arab world long before the removal of its veteran president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, after popular protests in 2011. Now it is experiencing what Oxfam calls the world’s largest “forgotten emergency”.

MSF UK Press Office (@MSF_Press) View from the roof of .@MSF hospital in #Saada, #Yemen that was hit by multiple airstrikes last night. pic.twitter.com/a7Hpf14VJM

Human rights groups have expressed concern at the mounting deaths caused by the aerial bombing and ground-fighting, while shuttle diplomacy by a UN envoy has yet to achieve a political solution or slow the pace of combat.

On Tuesday the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, condemned the hospital strike, calling for “a prompt, effective and impartial investigation in order to ensure accountability”. In a statement, a UN spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, added: “The secretary-general calls on all parties to the conflict in Yemen to immediately cease all operations, including air strikes.”

The crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, previously pledged that the nine-member coalition, which includes the United Arab Emirates, would “stand together until Yemen regains its Arab identity and is liberated from aggressors”.

The Saudis are supported by their allies, the US and Britain, which provide military equipment and intelligence support. But there is said to be growing disquiet in both the UK Foreign Office and the US Department of State about Riyadh’s strategy and civilian casualties.

Aid agencies say a key issue was the Saudi blockade of all major ports and airports, which means food imports struggle to get through. About 13 million of Yemen’s 23 million population are already defined as “food insecure” and 21 million are in need of assistance.

Kunduz hospital attack: how a US military ‘mistake’ left 22 dead Read more

Natalie Roberts was MSF’s emergency coordinator for the area last summer and worked at the hospital that was struck on Monday night. She said it was the only functional hospital in the region and had a large catchment area.

“It’s an area that had a lot of civilian casualties from the Saudi airstrikes – the town the hospital is in was usually hit by Saudi airstrikes about three times a week and the nearby towns were hit pretty much every day,” she said.

“We used to get about 150 emergency cases a week, half of which were trauma incidents from the bombing. People would travel two, three hours to reach us.”

Roberts said she had heard there were up to six airstrikes in 90 minutes on the hospital, the first at 10.30pm and the last at about midnight. “It’s quite a small hospital, it was really an emergency room with a maternity department. We’d stabilise the wounded patients and then refer them to Sa’dah city if they needed surgery.

“Generally, patients weren’t very comfortable sleeping in the hospital overnight because it’s in a very dangerous location. It was pretty scary working there. We’d have to give the GPS coordinates of the hospital and our movements to the coalition so they wouldn’t bomb us.”



Roberts added that a nearby girls’ school was bombed several times when she worked in the area. “It’s destroyed. The children haven’t been able to go to school for months, pretty much since the war started. They still seem to be bombing the school even though there’s no one in there.”



This is the second time this month that an MSF facility has been hit in a war zone. Its hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz was bombed by US forces on 3 October, killing at least 22 people.