Nearly 1,000 killed in attacks on health workers in 2014-15: WHO

Attacks on health centers have taken a hike in the past two years. The World Health Organization released its first report on the subject on Thursday, stating that around 1,000 people have been killed in these attacks in a period of two years; and over 40 percent of the attacks have taken place in Syria.

According to the report, health care centers in 19 countries have been subjected to an alarming 594 attacks that resulted in 959 deaths and 1,561 injuries. The months between January 2014 and December 2015 saw a state of emergency as war torn Syria experienced attacks on hospitals, ambulances, patients and medical workers, causing 352 deaths in the region. Gaza, the West Bank, Iraq, Pakistan and Libya saw a huge number of attacks on health care centers.

"This is not an isolated issue, it is not limited to warzones, it is not accidental. The majority of these are intentional," said WHO’s emergency programme executive director Bruce Aylward during a news briefing.

"It is also not stopping and it has real complications for what we are trying to do. It is getting more and more difficult to deploy people into these places, it is getting more and more difficult to keep them safe when they are there and it is getting more and more difficult to ensure they survive, let alone recover in crises," he added.

A US air strike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan last October resulted in 42 casualties and 37 injuries. A US report was later published stating that it was not a war crime and was caused by certain human error. Doctors Without Borders has, however, called for a separate inquiry of the incident.

According to WHO, 53 percent of these attacks are perpetrated by various states, 30 by armed groups and 17 percent of the perpetrators remain unknown.

"One of the most important rules of war you is that you don’t attack health care facilities, health care providers, the sick, the disabled. So these attacks do represent gross violations of international humanitarian law," said WHO director of emergency risk management and humanitarian response, Rick Brennan.

"Violations of international humanitarian law, if proven, can be considered war crimes and the perpetrators can be taken to the International Criminal Court," added Brennan.

— File photo by Reuters