Aid group makes humanitarian plea after 65 killed in Yemen

Doctors Without Borders made a dramatic appeal to Yemen’s warring factions to halt attacks on civilians, a day after heavy fighting in a key southern city killed more than 65 people and wounded at least 23.

“We call on the warring parties to stop attacking civilian targets, especially hospitals, ambulances and densely populated neighborhoods and allow medical personnel and humanitarian organizations to provide assistance,” the aid group, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF, said in a statement. “Patients and MSF staff are unable to reach hospitals due to the heavy fighting and airstrikes,” adding that 923 people have been wounded over the past three days, and that 133 of them died due to their severe injuries.

Only seven of Taiz’s 21 hospitals are currently open but they are “totally overwhelmed” and have run out of essential medication, MSF said.

Yemen’s fighting pits the Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamic militants and troops loyal to President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi, which are backed by a Saudi-led coalition.

[The Daily Star (Lebanon)]

This entry was posted in Humanitarian Aid, International Cooperation by Grant Montgomery.