the most
efficient use
of a bullet :
kill a doctor,
kill hundreds.
As a coalition of countries led by Saudi Arabia bombs thousands of civilians in Yemen and as the Syrian population is massacred, healthcare workers are target of attacks despite the principles of international humanitarian law.
The international community fails to react.
The bombing of hospitals has become commonplace. So has the – deliberate – slaughter of doctors, nurses, stretcher bearers and midwives, whatever their nationality.
The attackers know full well that one bullet to a doctor’s head kills dozens, hundreds of people.
A failure to act today, tolerating the intolerable, means being judged by History tomorrow.
Yemen
93
attacks on hospitals in two years
100+
healthcare facilities destroyed
55%
of the country’s hospitals
no longer functioning
8,000+
dead among the civilian population
14 million
people deprived of basic healthcare
6
doctors for 10,000 inhabitants in certain cities
Syria
814
nursing staff killed in healthcare facilities
15,000
Syrian medical practitioners forced
to flee between 2011 and 2015
338
attacks on hospitals recorded in 2016
33
bombing raids on Kafr Zita Cave
Hospital in Hama since 2014
6
medical units supported by
DotW targeted in 2016
53
patients killed
50%-
of health centres and hospitals currently operational
International humanitarian law is being flouted on a daily basis.
In areas that are suffering, doctors and nursing staff are now being targeted.
This is despite the fact that on 3 May 2016, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution strongly condemning acts of violence, attacks and threats directed at ill and injured patients, nursing staff, humanitarian workers and medical facilities.
More than a year after, nothing has changed. The international community is failing to honour its commitments. More serious yet is the fact that countries which are permanent members of the Security Council are directly or indirectly participating in violating these laws by providing military support and selling arms to certain States where international humanitarian law is disregarded.
Doctors of the World is today appealing to the Member States of the United Nations to:
Enforce Resolution 2286 relating to protecting health workers and medical facilities;
Force fighters to immediately respect the protection of civilians;
Bring an end to the targeting of healthcare staff.