Syria conflict: Air strike destroys MSF-supported hospital

 

A hospital in north-west Syria backed by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has been destroyed in an air strike.

The medical charity said eight members of staff were missing after the attack in Maarat al-Numan, but it did not identify who was responsible.
One monitoring group reported that at least nine people were killed and that Russian aircraft had targeted the town.
The strike comes days after Russia and other world powers agreed to a limited cessation of hostilities in Syria.
More than 250,000 people have died in almost five years of war in Syria.
Eleven million others have fled their homes as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and those opposed to his rule battle each other, as well as jihadist militants from so-called Islamic State (IS).
Separately on Monday, Turkey issued new threats to Kurdish forces who have made ground in northern Syria, saying it would not allow them to take the key border town of Azaz.

'Deliberate attack'

MSF said four rockets hit the hospital in Maarat al-Numan, a rebel-held town about 30km (20 miles) south of the city of Idlib, within minutes of each other on Monday morning.
Eight members of staff at the hospital were currently missing, it added.





The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group which relies on a network of sources on the ground, said nine people were killed, including a child. The raid also left dozens of others wounded, it added.
"This appears to be a deliberate attack on a health structure, and we condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms," said Massimiliano Rebaudengo, MSF's head of mission in Syria.
"The destruction of the hospital leaves the local population of around 40,000 people without access to medical services in an active zone of conflict."
The 30-bed hospital, which MSF had been supporting since September 2015, had 54 staff, two operating theatres, an outpatients department an emergency room.

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Syria's health facilities targeted

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) says 2015 "saw the most blatant attacks on health facilities in Syria". Between June and August, there were approximately 70 aerial attacks alone
• Between the start of the uprising in March 2011 and November 2015, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) documented 336 attacks on at least 240 medical facilities, and the deaths of 697 medical personnel
• Ninety percent of the attacks were carried out by the Syrian government and its allies, according to PHR
• The UN says an estimated 58% of public hospitals and 49% of primary health centres in Syria are either only partially functional or have closed, limiting healthcare workers' ability to cope with the more than 25,000 trauma cases per month
• More than 40% of the population in Syria lack access to basic health services, and the shortages of specialised medical staff, ambulances, equipment and medical supplies have led to an increased number of preventable deaths

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On 5 February, three people were killed and six wounded when an MSF-supported hospital in the southern province of Deraa was hit in an air strike.
MSF, which operates medical facilities inside Syria and supports directly more than 150 others, said last week that such incidents were further depleting Syria's already exhausted healthcare system and preventing more people from accessing desperately needed medical care.
Since the start of this year alone, 14 health facilities in Syria have been hit, which MSF said confirmed that hospitals and clinics were no longer places where patients could recover in safety.
MSF also reiterated that the repeated attacks on medical facilities in the ongoing conflict constituted a flagrant violation of international laws.