Yemen Mission June/July 2015 – Aden & Taiz

A joint crisis/MENA mission to Yemen in June/July 2015. Photos are from the team’s visits to Taiz and Aden.

Pictured: Al-Thawra Hospital in Taiz.

During the fighting in the city of Ta’iz, al-Thawra Hospital (along with al-Rawdha, al-Jamhouri) was under the control of anti-Huthi PRC armed groups (Pro Hadi forces). Meanwhile, the Yemen International Hospital, one of the better equipped hospitals in the city, is under the control of Huthi/Saleh-loyalist armed groups.

Staff in the emergency unit of al-Thawra hospital told Amnesty International that daily clashes have been taking place around the hospital between opposing armed groups, despite the staff’s appeal to the armed groups that the hospital is a civilian facility seeking to provide assistance to the sick and wounded.

Al-Thawra Hospital staff provided Amnesty International with information about dozens of incidents of mortar and shelling between 26 April and 1 June, which have led to the injury of staff, killing of patients and the destruction of the hospital. Fragments of 6Omm mortars and RPGs, both commonly used by all armed groups were seen by Amnesty International at the hospital, and cartridges of 7.62 bullets were found in the hospital yard in early July. Staff said that days earlier a nurse from the hospital who was also a member of an armed group had forcibly taken the newest ambulance, shooting open the door of the garage where the ambulance was kept.