Médecins Sans Frontières: bombing hospitals is a strategy of terror
Rights — di Andrea Barolini
Fabrice Weissman of Médecins Sans Frontières speaks out after yet another bombardment targeting the humanitarian organisation's facilities.
Médecins Sans Frontières: bombing hospitals is a strategy of terror
Fabrice Weissman of Médecins Sans Frontières speaks out after yet another bombardment targeting the humanitarian organisation's facilities.
"We are worried. This is not an isolated incident, but a series. A long series." Fabrice Weissman of the Centre de Réflexion sur l'Action et les Savoirs Humanitaires, the think tank of the French division of Médecins Sans Frontières, comments bitterly on yet another attack on the organisation's facilities and staff.
50 civilians killed in Syria bombings
The scene of the latest carnage, on 15 February, was northern Syria, between the cities of Aleppo and Idlib. Several airstrikes hit two schools and five hospitals, including the one in Ma'arat Al Numan managed by MSF, which was struck by four rockets. Farhan Haq, spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, stated that the death toll — still provisional — stands at "nearly fifty civilians killed, including children."
According to Médecins Sans Frontières, seven people lost their lives in the hospital: five patients (among them a child), one accompanying person and one guard. Three members of the humanitarian organisation's staff were injured and two are reported missing, while other patients are still unaccounted for. "The destruction of the hospital will prevent the approximately 40,000 people living in the area from receiving medical care. At this point, we do not know whether the facility will reopen in another location," said Massimiliano Rebaudengo, MSF's head of mission.
"What is happening," Weissman continues, "is alarming. It is nothing new for civilian structures, including healthcare facilities, to be struck during armed conflicts. But we have been attacked multiple times in Yemen, then in Afghanistan, and now in Syria. This is a strategy of terror aimed at sending a message to the population — that nowhere is safe, ever. Not even in hospitals."
"The bombs are being dropped by nations, not by uncontrolled gangs"
"But what is most frightening," he adds, "is that behind all of this there are not uncontrolled gangs, but powerful nations. That was the case with the United States in Afghanistan, with the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen, and now with the bombing in Syria, which in all likelihood is the work of Assad's government, backed by Russia."
The hospital in Ma'arat Al Numan had thirty beds, two operating theatres, a consultation service and an emergency room. It employed fifty-four people and treated approximately 1,500 patients per month.