Health facilities attacked in 19 countries

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Deliberate or indiscriminate attacks have decimated health facilities, killed medical workers and patients, and deprived countless civilians of care in 19 countries during 2015 and the first three months of 2016, a coalition of more than 30 health and humanitarian organizations said in a new report released Monday.

The Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition said the attacks took place from Colombia across Africa and the Middle East to Asia, including Pakistan, Myanmar and Thailand.

“The report shows both the pervasiveness and variety of attacks on health facilities, staff and patients globally,'' coalition co-chair Leonard Rubenstein of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said in a statement. “Sometimes the attacks are deliberate, sometimes they're a product of indifference to the harms caused, and sometimes they represent gross failures to take steps needed to prevent death and injury – but all violate longstanding obligations under international law.''

The UN Security Council earlier this month adopted a resolution condemning attacks on health facilities and health workers and reiterating that under the laws of war hospitals and staff must be protected from attack. It called on all countries to prevent attacks, investigate them and bring the perpetrators to justice.

“Turning hospitals into battlefields is a grave breach of humanitarian law and an affront to humanity,'' said Susannah Sirkin of Physicians for Human Rights, a coalition member.

Laura Hoemeke of IntraHealth International, another member, said “the international community's failure to halt such attacks has sparked a chain reaction of impunity.''

Among its recommendations, the coalition called on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the World Health Organization to document attacks on health facilities and workers, and urged the Security Council to refer such crimes to the International Criminal Court or other tribunals if countries don't take action.