ADEN, YEMEN/NEW YORK, April 4, 2019—Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has suspended all patient admissions to the organization's emergency trauma hospital in Aden, Yemen, following the kidnapping and killing of a patient.
On the morning of April 2, a group of armed men threatened guards and medical staff at Al Sadaqah hospital before entering the building and kidnapping a patient who had been admitted the previous day and was due to undergo surgery. Later the same day, the patient was found dead on a street in the city's Al Mansoura district.
This incident follows several other threats and security incidents this year involving patients and staff, even as the hospital is particularly busy treating people wounded in the escalating violence in Aden.
"Following this incident, we have no choice but to suspend the admission of patients until further notice," said Caroline Seguin, MSF's program manager for Yemen. "Over recent weeks, the hospital has been functioning at full capacity, particularly the emergency room and intensive care unit, following an escalation of violence in the city."
The hospital continues to treat previously admitted patients.
