Yemenis turn mosque into hospital

A picture taken in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a on March 12, 2011 shows injured anti-government protestors lying on the yard of a mosque used as a makeshift hospital

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/173606.html

Yemeni doctors and students have turned a mosque in the capital into a makeshift hospital to take in victims of the government's brutal crackdown on the popular revolution.

Joining hands with the medical students from the Sana'a University, the physicians have equipped the mosque, located near Sana'a's Change Square, with 35 beds, medical equipment and about a dozen medical staff, Reuters reported.

The volunteers serve patients that have been targeted with live rounds and tear gas canisters.

“Our presence is important here. We receive a lot of cases,” said one doctor, named Iman al-Awisi.

Since late January, demonstrators have been calling for an end to widespread corruption and unemployment in Yemen, also demanding ouster of the 32-year rule of despotic President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Some 40 percent of the population live on $2 a day or less and a third face food shortages.

Hundreds of thousands of people have turned out for regular demonstrations around the country, namely in the capital and the southwestern cities of Aden and Taiz.

The protests have been met by riot police or Saleh's supporters armed with knives and batons.

According to local reports, the death toll in the country has surpassed 300 since the protests began.

Saleh has said he will not seek another term in office in 2013 but has vowed to defend his regime 'with every drop of blood.'