A medical officer from Doctors Without Borders attends to a child with malnutrition
Medical humanitarian NGO, Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, says one of its hospitals in South Sudan was hit by a government air strike, amid renewed fighting between soldiers and a coalition of opposition forces in opposition-held areas.
The night attack on the hospital in Lankien, Jonglei state, on Tuesday, marks the 10th attack in 12 months on an MSF-run medical facility in the country.
It came after the South Sudanese government in December imposed restrictions on humanitarian access in opposition-held areas of Jonglei, restricting MSF’s ability to deliver essential medical assistance there.
The hospital was “evacuated and patients were discharged hours before the attack” after it received information about a possible strike against the city, MSF said in a statement.
But “one MSF staff member suffered minor injuries,” it added.
“The hospital’s main warehouse was destroyed during the attack, and we lost most of our critical supplies for providing medical care,” said the statement.
In a separate incident, MSF said its health facility in Pieri, also in Jonglei, had been looted on Tuesday by unknown assailants, making it “unusable for the local community.”
“Our colleagues from Lankien and Pieri had to flee with the community, and their fate and whereabouts are still unknown, as we are trying to establish communication with them,” the organisation said.
Gul Badshah, MSF’s operations manager in South Sudan, stressed that the charity had “shared the GPS coordinates of all our facilities with the government and other parties to the conflict before, and we received the confirmation that they are aware of our locations.”
“The government of South Sudan armed forces are the only armed party with the capacity to perform aerial attacks in the country,” he added.
Government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny and army spokesman Major General Lul Ruai Koang did not immediately respond to media requests for comment.
‘Enormous needs’ in the country
Jonglei is among the parts of South Sudan most affected by food shortages, and faces severe health needs, analysts say.
The United Nations says an estimated 280,000 people have been displaced by fighting and aerial bombardments there between December and this week.
MSF highlighted that it was the only health provider serving about 250,000 people in Lankien and Pieri, cautioning that attacks on its facilities there “mean that local communities will be left without any healthcare.”
Badshah said MSF would “make the necessary decisions to protect the safety of our staff and healthcare facilities” there.
“While we are aware of the enormous needs in the country, we find it unacceptable to be a target for attacks,” he said.
MSF has been present in the territory that makes up present-day South Sudan for more than four decades, he noted.
The NGO said the targeted attacks on its facilities have forced the closure of two hospitals in the Greater Upper Nile and the suspension of general healthcare activities in Jonglei, Upper Nile and Central Equatoria states.
South Sudan is the world’s newest sovereign state, which has been beset by civil war, poverty and huge corruption since it was formed in 2011.
