South Sudan Hospital Hit by Government Air Strike, Says MSF

Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, says one of its hospitals in Lankien, Jonglei state, South Sudan, was hit by a government air strike on Tuesday. The attack is the 10th in 12 months targeting MSF-run facilities in the country. The hospital had been evacuated hours earlier, and patients discharged, though one staff member sustained minor injuries.

MSF said its main warehouse in Lankien was destroyed, resulting in the loss of most critical medical supplies. A separate MSF facility in Pieri, also in Jonglei, was looted by unknown assailants, rendering it unusable for the local community. Staff from both locations fled with residents, and their whereabouts are currently unknown.

Gul Badshah, MSF’s operations manager in South Sudan, said the NGO had shared GPS coordinates of all facilities with the government, which acknowledged awareness of their locations. He stressed that the government’s armed forces were the only group capable of carrying out aerial attacks in the country.

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The United Nations reports that an estimated 280,000 people have been displaced in Jonglei by fighting and bombardments since December. MSF is the only health provider serving roughly 250,000 people in Lankien and Pieri, and the attacks have forced the closure of two hospitals in the Greater Upper Nile, suspending general healthcare in several states.