Attacks on Health

Yemen: Nine Wounded in Saudi-Led Coalition Airstrike on MSF Clinic in Taiz

Thursday, December 3, 2015
AMSTERDAM/TAIZ, YEMEN—Airstrikes carried out yesterday by the Saudi-led coalition hit a clinic in southern Yemen run by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and wounded nine people, including two MSF staff members. According to local sources, at 11:20 a.m. local time on December 2, three airstrikes targeted a park in Taiz city's Al Houban district, about two kilometers from MSF's tented clinic. The MSF team immediately evacuated the Al Houban clinic and informed the Saudi-led coalition that their jet planes were mounting an attack nearby. The clinic itself then came under attack.

Attacks on Health Care in Syria — Normalizing Violations of Medical Neutrality?

Wednesday, November 18, 2015
In July 2015, a 26-year-old pediatrician described to our team of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) investigators his experiences in Aleppo, Syria's most populous city. When he was a medical student in 2012, government forces detained and severely beat him. He now works as an emergency medicine physician and surgery resident in a hospital that has twice been bombed by the Syrian government. He lives in fear of being killed by bombs on his way to work or while there. His family wants him to leave Syria as they did, but he explained, “It's our country, and if we leave, it will fall apart. At times, I think maybe I will leave and specialize and come back with better skills, but then I see how much the people need me. Maybe that's the biggest thing that's keeping me inside.”

Stop the violence. Protect health care.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015
In the last few months, a number of attacks against health workers, medical transports, and facilities have taken place in several countries, like Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen to mention a few. These incidents are taking place in countries with fragile health care systems that are already struggling to treat the numbers of people affected by the ongoing conflicts there. In some cases, the situation is made even worse by the restrictions placed on aid workers, preventing them from getting to the people who need them.

Mugging gone wrong?: Polio health worker attacked

Saturday, October 17, 2015
PESHAWAR: A health worker was assaulted and robbed on Saturday in Shagai Hindkyan village. Lady health visitor Shabana, who is actively engaged in polio vaccination campaigns, was attacked by two unidentified motorcyclists within the jurisdiction of Mathra police station. The assailants threatened to kill the health worker if she did not quit polio vaccinations and fled the scene.

Attacks on Health Facilities, Staff, Patients

Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Attacks on medical facilities, health workers, and patients have occurred in at least 17 countries undergoing conflict and civil unrest since January 2014, Human Rights Watch and the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition said in a joint report issued today. The report was released at the annual meeting of health ministers from around the world in Geneva from May 18-26, 2015. The 22-page report, “Attacks on Health: Global Report,” highlights recent attacks in countries around the world.

Syria's Civil War Forces Doctors to Choose the Rebels or the Regime

Thursday, December 19, 2013
Adnan Ismail worked as a doctor in a Syrian government hospital. But civil war led him to a farm field where he and friends labored nights in secret to build a makeshift rebel-run clinic. For a year, Dr. Ismail helped dig walls and stairs to fashion an underground bunker that was eventually equipped for surgery, he said. Dr. Adnan Ismail led a secret life tending to Syrian rebels and civilians hurt by government forces.

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