Club Lunch: Targeting Hospitals and Aid Convoys: Old War Crimes Or New War Tactic?

One year ago, the trauma hospital of the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), a.k.a. Doctors Without Borders, in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan, was the target of a sustained U.S. airstrike for 30 minutes, killing 42 medical staff, patients and care takers. It is one of the single largest losses of life in the 44-year history of MSF. However bombing and shelling attacks on medical facilities have not been limited to Afghanistan, but have also been occurring in Syria, Yemen, Sudan etc.  Mr. Carrier feels the bombings make MSF’s continued presence in conflict areas all the more challenging and all the more necessary and shared his view on what can be done to try and stop future bombings.

Rémi Carrier started his career with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in 1993, working in Angola and then Afghanistan as a logistician and administrator. He continued to work as Logistics and Technical Coordinator for MSF’s projects in China and different African countries.   He took part in the reopening of medical programmes in Afghanistan after MSF withdrew its international staff shortly after September 11, 2001. He also went to Banda Aceh, Indonesia for the post-tsunami emergency intervention at the end of 2004. He was Head of Mission in Kenya and in Thailand before taking up the post of Executive Director of MSF-Hong Kong in August 2010 and sits at the Executive Committee of MSF.