No longer safe: MSF workers evacuating from Yemen hospitals

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Thursday announced plans to evacuate its staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen after 19 people were killed in a Saudi-led coalition airstrike on one of its facilities earlier this week.

Monday's attack on the Abs hospital in the rebel-held province of Hajja was the fourth and deadliest yet on an MSF facility in war-torn Yemen.

"Given the intensity of the current offensive and our loss of confidence in the [Saudi-led] coalition's ability to avoid such fatal attacks, MSF considers that the hospitals in Saada and Hajjah governorates are unsafe for both patients and staff," the group said in a statement.

The Paris-based charity said despite sharing GPS coordinates of its facilities and receiving repeated assurances from the coalition, the Abs hospital attack "shows a failure to control the use of force and to avoid attacks on hospitals full of patients."

"This latest incident shows that the current rules of engagement, military protocols and procedures are inadequate in avoiding attacks on hospitals and need revision and changes," said Joan Tubau, the General Director of MSF.

The hospitals will continue to be manned by local workers and volunteers, MSF said.

The Saudi-led coalition began its bombing campaign in March last year after Houthi rebels seized large parts of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.

MSF is neither satisfied nor reassured by the Saudi-led coalition's statement that this attack was a mistake. - MSF

The coalition stepped up airstrikes this month after UN-mediated peace talks between the rebels and Yemen's internationally backed government were suspended.

Monday's bombing of Abs hospital drew international condemnation, prompting the coalition to announce an investigation into the attack.

However the charity expressed skepticism: "MSF is neither satisfied nor reassured by the Saudi-led coalition's statement that this attack was a mistake."

It also accused all sides in Yemen's war of "indiscriminate attacks" on civilians.

One MSF worker was among those killed in the Abs hospital attack, while another 24 people were wounded.

At the time of the strike, the hospital was "full of patients recovering from surgery, in maternity, newborns and children in paediatrics", MSF has said.

Warring parties in Yemen have damaged or destroyed over 70 health centres, according to the UN.

The United Nations says more than 6,500 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since last March and more than 80 percent of the population needs humanitarian aid.