Saudi air strike on Yemeni wedding a 'violation of international humanitarian law': MSF
Médecins Sans Frontières/ Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has described the latest attack on civilians in Yemen as a "serious violation of international humanitarian law".
In a statement today the charity revealed how it has received 63 casualties in a hospital it supports in Hajjah, following a series of night-time airstrikes by the Saudi and Emirati-led coalition on a wedding party that took place in a remote, impoverished village in Bani Qays district in Yemen, on Sunday April 22.
Local media in Yemen
are reporting the overall death toll from the attack as 88.
The MSF statement follows the emergence of aheart breaking video of a young boy clinging to his dead father following the Saudi bombing of the wedding.
The graphic footage has been widely shared on social media originates, according to several media, with the Al-Masirah TV station.
The station is overseen by the armed Houthi movement which controls much of northern Yemen and shows the young boy clutching what the station claim is his father's body in the Hajjah region.
“Attacks on civilians are a serious violation of international humanitarian law. What happened in Bani Qays is appalling; among the 63 wounded our teams have treated, 13 are children. These people arrived at the hospital in garlands traditionally worn to celebrate marriage. None were armed or arrived in military uniform,” said João Martins, MSF head of mission in Yemen.
MSF revealed how the hospital in Hajjah received its first patients at midnight, after the strikes occurred around 11pm and revealed how the wounded were initially carried away from the scene by donkeys, as the only two cars in the village were damaged in the strikes.
The first responders and two ambulances from the MSF-supported hospital eventually arrived in the village, but were severely delayed because the aircrafts circling overhead raised the spectre of more strikes.
“I was inside the tent when I heard the airstrikes. After that I fell down and lost consciousness. When I woke up, I saw people running away from the tent. I had been inside with my brother and the groom is my friend. One of my cousins died in this attack,” said 12-year-old Kamal.
Darees, who had also attended the wedding, left 20 minutes before the attack. When he returned he was confronted with a chaotic scene and dismembered bodies on the ground, covered in blood. Children, he said, were frantically searching for their parents.
Saudi-led air strike kills 30 people at a wedding party in Yemen. Most of the dead were women and children. pic.twitter.com/CAgbfav18H
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 24, 2018
“Some of the dead bodies were children. Children were playing outside while their parents attended the wedding inside the tent. That’s when the attack happened,” he said.
MSF said that at Hajjah hospital, the ambulances arrived with as many as six patients at a time. The injured had mainly lost limbs and suffered shrapnel wounds. At least three patients required amputation, including two brothers, who each lost a foot. By early morning, many residents of Hajjah had come to the hospital to donate blood. In two hours, 150 bags were collected to treat the wounded.
“One woman arrived at the hospital in panic, searching for her son. He was attending the wedding and she doesn’t know what happened to him. Many other women and children in the village are traumatised and don’t know what happened to their loved ones,” said Sally Thomas, MSF project coordinator in Hajjah.
“Warring parties to the conflict must respect the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution: it is prohibited to launch such attacks which may be expected to harm civilians.
"The rules of war have constantly been violated in Yemen. All warring parties must commit to protecting civilians, and all parties fuelling the conflict by selling arms should uphold their responsibility to ensure that international laws established to protect civilians are respected,” Martins added.
