Yemen: Footage shows aftermath of bombed MSF hospital

Footage has shown aftermath of what Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says was a missile strike on an hospital run by the medical charity in north Yemen on Monday (26 October). MSF said that the Saudi-led coalition was responsible for the strikes but the coalition has strenuously denied its planes had hit the hospital.

"This is Heedan hospital and it was hit by the Saudi-American aggressors with four airstrikes that completely destroyed the only hospital in the district that services dozens of surrounding areas. This is the only hospital that they can go to for treatment," said a Heedan resident at the scene of the attack amid the rubble.

MSF President Meguerditch Terzian said in Paris that despite the coalition's denials, there was no doubt who was behind the attack. "Since the beginning of the last conflict, only coalition forces planes are capable to organise strikes and military strikes in the country. The other belligerents, they don't have planes circulating in Yemen. We have no doubt that the coalition forces bombed Heedan district and they bombed as well our hospital," Terzian said.

No one was killed in the attack and only a few minor injuries were sustained, but MSF chief of operations said that the medical charity needed to have the coalition acknowledge the attack to be able to continue to work on the ground.

"It's important because for us to continue to work we need them to acknowledge these facts, we need them to give explanations and to be able to talk to them about the space we have to work in and the opportunities we and others have to bring the medical and humanitarian assistance with a certain level of security," Isabelle Defourny said.

The Coalition warplanes bombing the Houthis across Yemen, dropped weapons for Islamist militias battling the group on Wednesday (28 October). The United Nations has designated Yemen as one of its highest-level humanitarian crises, alongside emergencies in South Sudan, Syria and Iraq. It says more than 21 million people in Yemen need help, or about 80% of the population.