The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Thursday that it had been able to confirm more than 100 attacks on health facilities in Ukraine and called for urgent humanitarian access to Mariupol, which is under siege by the Russian armed forces.
“To date, the WHO has verified 103 attacks on health services, with 73 dead and 51 injured, including health and patients,” said the head of the organization, which is part of the UN system, Antanom Gebreses. »This account.
Of the confirmed attacks, 89 were hit by health facilities and most other transportation services, mostly ambulances.
“We are shocked by the continuing attacks on health services,” he said, adding that they were a “violation of international humanitarian law”.
Earlier, during a separate press conference in Lviv, western Ukraine, the director of the WHO European Division, Hans Kluge, denounced the fact that some parts of Ukraine are outside the reach of health services.
“The WHO has been able to deliver material that allows lives to be saved in several affected areas, but it is true that some remain very difficult to access,” he acknowledged. “I think the priority, clearly, is Mariupol,” he added.
The Russian army and its separatist allies have been besieging the city for weeks. They face fierce Ukrainian resistance.
The humanitarian situation there is catastrophic – from both camps. The city has been largely reduced to rubble. There are growing concerns about the fate of civilians in Mariupol, which had a population of more than 400,000 before the Russian invasion.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday accused Russia of blocking humanitarian access to Mariupol to hide the “thousands” of victims.
Until yesterday, the WHO “was able to distribute 185 tons of medical supplies to the most severely affected areas of the country”, which allows medical assistance to be offered “to half a million people”, Mr. Klouge estimated.
He also noted that “50% of Ukrainian pharmacies are considered to be closed and 1,000 health facilities are located near war zones or control areas that have changed.”
Mr Kluge also emphasized that the attacks on health services were a “clear violation of international humanitarian law”, but said that the WHO did not immediately take responsibility for them because it “did not have the mandate” to do so.
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