Hospitals are now normal targets of war, says Medecins Sans Frontieres

The targeting of hospitals and humanitarian workers in war is quickly becoming a “new normal”, a top official at Medecins Sans Frontieres has said, describing permanent members of the UN security council as complicit in the killing of medics. Michiel Hofman, a senior humanitarian specialist at the charity, offered a grim analysis, saying instead of rebel groups it was conventional armies that were repeatedly violating the laws of war. He chided the permanent members of the security council, four of whom are engaged in conflicts where medics are targeted, saying such a situation had not occurred since the Korean war in the 1950s.