A missile strike in northern Yemen on 10 January has claimed at least four lives, injured three Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) staff and destroyed buildings belonging to the Shiara Hospital in the Razeh district. MSF has been in charge of operating the hospital since November 2015.

“The numbers of casualties could rise as there could still be people trapped in the rubble,” the MSF statement said. ”All staff and patients have evacuated and patients are being transferred to the Al-Goumoury Hospital in Saada.”

Racquel Ayora, director of operations at MSF, said that all warring parties, including the Saudi-led coalition, are regularly informed of the global positioning coordinates (GPS) of MSF’s medical sites. ”There is no way anyone with the capacity to carry out an air strike… would not have known that the Shiara Hospital was a functioning health facility providing critical services,” Ayora said.

The bomb is the third to hit a MSF facility over the past three months. Previous strikes destroyed the Haydan hospital on 27 October and a similar facility in Taiz on 3 December. 

MSF, or Doctors without Borders, operates and supports healthcare facilities in the Yemeni governorates of Aden, Al-Dhale, Taiz, Amran, Hajjah, Ibb and Sanaa. Its facilities have treated more than 20,000 war-wounded patients and it has sent 790 tonnes of medical supplies to the country so far.