Nearly 960 people have been killed worldwide in attacks on medical facilities in conflicts over the past two years, the World Health Organization said in a report Thursday that highlighted an alarming disrespect for the protection of health care in war by both governments and armed groups, CBC reported.
The study by the U.N. heath agency detailed 594 attacks on hospitals and clinics in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere in 2014 and 2015 that killed 959 medics, support staff, patients and visitors and left over 1,500 injured.
Most disturbingly, the report says over 60 percent of the attacks deliberately targeted the medical facilities, while 20 per cent were accidental and the rest were undetermined. Over 50 per cent of the attacks were perpetrated by governments, one-third by armed groups and the rest were unknown.
War-wracked Syria tallied the largest number of attacks on health care — 228 in the two-year span — accounting for nearly 40 per cent of the agency's global tally.
"This is a huge problem. Attacks on health workers are not isolated, they are not accidental and they are not stopping," said Dr. Bruce Aylward, the head of emergency response at WHO.
He told reporters in Geneva that often governments or combatants pay lip service to trying to end attacks on health facilities, with no follow-through.