Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) expresses deep concern about the security of its surgical centre in Aden in Yemen after a group of armed men forcibly entered the hospital on Monday night, June 18th, and attempted to take away a patient who was being treated in the emergency room.

MSF staff tried their best to ensure medical care and protection of the patient, following international laws and rules of hospitality that are highly valued by the Yemeni community. These threats to our personnel and to the functioning of the hospital force us to temporarily suspend activities while seeking official clarification and reassurances that the events represent an unfortunate but isolated incident.

The incident is a flagrant breach of the guarantee of safe treatment for all patients within MSF medical facilities. MSF has a strict no-weapons policy in all of its health facilities worldwide, and considers this latest incident a violation of the laws and agreements regulating the respect of hospital structures and the medical mission.

Yemen 2012 © Saoussen Ben Cheik/MSF
In April 2012, MSF opened an emergency surgical center in Aden which receives referrals of obstetric, paediatric and violent trauma cases. Over 200 patients have been referred, of which more than a third were trauma cases related to violence, with the vast majority being civilian victims.

Since April this year, MSF has been running an emergency surgical referral centre located inside Al-Wahda Hospital complex in Aden. MSF has treated over 200 patients free-of-charge in the past two months. Eighty per cent of patients have been admitted with violence-related trauma, including women and children, mainly due to gunshot injuries and burns caused by bomb blasts.

Each day MSF carries out an average of seven life-saving operations. Half of our patients come from Aden and most others are referred from the towns of Jaar and Lawdar in the neighboring governorate of Abyan. Patients are admitted regardless of their political or religious affiliations.

MSF seeks to work constructively with all sides to ensure that such incidents do not happen again. As an independent and impartial medical organization, MSF is purely concerned about providing the best medical care possible for patients.

MSF has decided to suspend its activities in the surgical centre for three days in order to assess the security implications of the incident and to gain assurances from community leaders and local authorities that this will not happen again. MSF calls on all parties in Yemen to adhere to the principles of international humanitarian law and universal medical ethics that call for the respect and protection of healthcare facilities and their personnel, as they treat patients equally regardless of race, religion, political or ethnic affiliation.

 

MSF has been working in Yemen since 1986 and continuously since 2007. In addition to the governorates of Aden, Abyan, Ad-Dhali and Al-Baydha, the organisation conducts surgical and medical activities in the governorates of Amran and Hajjah in the north of the country.

In Yemen, MSF does not accept funding from any government and chooses to rely solely on private donations.

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