Hospital of Doctors Without Borders in South Sudan attacked, ‘at least seven people killed’

At an attack on a hospital run by Doctors without Borders in South Sudan, at least seven people were killed on Saturday. That reports the aid organization On social media. More than twenty people would also have been injured. In South Sudan, which became independent of Sudan in 2011, the army of President Salva Kiir bombards areas under the control of opposition leader Riek Machar. It is still unclear whether the government army is also behind Saturday’s attack.

« Around half past four this morning, helicopters dropped a bomb at our pharmacy and shot the city for thirty minutes, » writes the local department of Doctors Without Borders. The aid organization runs a hospital with a pharmacy in Old Fangak, a remote area about five hundred kilometers from the South Sudanese capital Juba. « Our pharmacy burned down to the ground. All medical supplies were lost. »

As a result of the war, tens of thousands of civilians were fled. The hospital was the only medical facility for the more than forty thousand inhabitants and displaced persons in the area, says Doctors without Borders. The aid organization calls the attack on the hospital « a clear violation of international law ».

Civil war

South Sudan ended up in a civil war after it was released from Sudan, where an even greater war is currently being fought between government forces and the Rapid Support Forces. In 2018, Peace was concluded between the regime and the opposition in South Sudan. Since the arrest of opposition leader Machar in March, the violence has flared up again.

« South Sudan is not a nation, but a village, a kind of cattle camp, » said politician and author Peter Adwok Nyaba recently against NRC. « Soldiers from the national army rob citizens and the secret service takes up dissidents. » Last week NRC verified images that can be seen that chemical weapons are probably used for air strikes in South Sudan.

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