Local Editor
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) also known as Doctors Without Borders is extremely concerned about the recent declaration made by the official spokesperson of the Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) on Yemen, Mansour Ahmad Al-Mansour, about the bombing of Abs hospital, in Hajjah governorate, on 15 August 2016.
According to MSF, this public declaration does not reflect the conversations the humanitarian organization had in Saudi Arabia with the JIAT and military forces after the attack. MSF also conducted its own investigation into the incident, which has been shared with the Saudi authorities.
Following JIAT declarations, the aid organization stressed that, "We do not consider this incident an ‘error’, but a consequence of conducting hostilities with disregard for the protected nature of hospitals and civilian structures."
MSF also stated that "Warring parties should verify surroundings before engaging in airstrikes on moving targets, and should take all precautionary measures to avoid civilian deaths and damage to hospitals." The NGO further adds, "The airstrike on Abs hospital showed a significant and unacceptable disregard for these measures."
MSF described the airstrike on Abs hospital by Saudi warplanes as "totally unjustifiable", strongly rejecting the public justification of this attack by JIAT.
Doctors Without Borders added that JIAT’s "declaration shows, once again, that potential violations of International Humanitarian Law should be investigated by independent bodies."
On Tuesday and despite some irregularities in the JIAT findings with that of the MSF, Mansour stated that the strike was an "unintentional mistake", and urged the coalition to apologize and provide assistance to the families of those affected.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
