UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned recent airstrikes by the Saudi-led military coalition against the medical and humanitarian facilities operated by Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, or MSF) in Yemen.
UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) – On Wednesday, at least seven people were wounded in Saudi-led attack on a non-combatant MSF facility in the southwestern Yemeni city of Taiz.
"The Secretary-General condemns the airstrikes today by the Saudi-led Coalition on a mobile health clinic run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Taiz city, Yemen… He had condemned an earlier incident on 27 October during which a hospital run by MSF in Sa’ada province was hit by airstrikes," the United Nations said in a statement Wednesday.
He pointed out that medical facilities and personnel are not military combatants and are under the protection of international and humanitarian law.
Yemen has been engulfed in a military conflict between the government and the Houthi opposition faction for over a year.
Since March, a Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against Houthi positions at the request of Yemen’s President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.
In October, an MSF hospital in the capital Saada was bombed while staff and patients were inside the building. The MSF believes the coalition was responsible for the incident, and the coalition forces have denied the accusations.
By Sputnik