South Sudan: MSF strongly condemns deliberate bombing of its hospital

Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) strongly condemns the deliberate bombing of its hospital in Old Fangak, South Sudan.

The attack in Jonglei State began on 3 May at around 4:30 am when two helicopter gunships first dropped a bomb on the MSF pharmacy, burning it to the ground. They then went on to fire on the town of Old Fangak for around 30 minutes.

At around 7:00 am, a drone bombed the Old Fangak market. There have been at least seven deaths and 20 injured.

Mamman Mustapha, Head of MSF in South Sudan, said:

“At 8:00 am, we received around 20 wounded people at our hospital in Old Fangak, including four in a critical condition. There are reports of more fatalities and wounded in the community.

"One patient and two caregivers, including one of our staff, who were already inside the hospital were injured in the bombing - patients who were not in a critical condition ran from the facility.

"The bombing of our hospital in Old Fangak has resulted in significant damage, including the complete destruction of the pharmacy, which was burned to the ground.

"This is where all our medical supplies for the hospital and our outreach activities were stored, severely compromising our ability to provide care.

"We strongly condemn this attack, which took place despite the geolocations of all MSF structures, including Old Fangak Hospital, being shared with all parties to the conflict.

“Old Fangak Hospital is the only hospital in Fangak county, serving a population of over 110,000 people who already had extremely limited access to healthcare.

"We are still assessing the full extent of the damage and the impact on our ability to provide care, but this attack clearly means people will now be even further cut off from receiving life-saving treatment.

"We call on all parties to the conflict to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure – this includes health workers, patients and health facilities. Hospitals must never be targeted and the lives of civilians must be protected."

This is the second time an MSF hospital has been hit by violence in the past month, following the armed looting of our hospital and premises in Ulang, Upper Nile state, on 14 April, which led to the entire population of Ulang county being cut off from secondary healthcare.