U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the missile attack Sunday in northern Yemen that killed at least four people at a hospital supported by the aid group Doctors Without Borders.
A statement from Ban's spokesman said the U.N. chief urged a prompt, independent investigation to hold accountable those responsible for the attack on the Shiara Hospital in Saada province.
"The Secretary-General is extremely concerned about the increasingly limited access to essential healthcare services for Yemenis. He emphasizes that hospitals and medical personnel are explicitly protected under international humanitarian law and that any intentional attack against civilians and civilian infrastructure is considered a serious violation of international humanitarian law," read the statement.
Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said the shelling wounded 10 people, including three of its staff members.
"There is no way that anyone with the capacity to carry out an airstrike or launch a rocket would not have known that the Shiara Hospital was a functioning health facility," said MSF Director of Operations Raquel Ayora. "All warring parties, including the Saudi-led coalition, are regularly informed of the GPS coordinates of the medical sites where MSF works."
MSF said this is the third attack on one of its health facilities in Yemen in recent months. It said an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition destroyed Haydan hospital in October, while in December another Saudi-led airstrike struck a health center in Taiz and wounded nine people.
