from RAJI BASHIR in Khartoum, Sudan
Sudan Bureau
KHARTOUM, (CAJ News) – AN airstrike that has hit a health facility of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is part of an alarming trend of attacks affecting medical facilities in South Sudan.
A helicopter gunship perpetrated the attack on the facility in the town of Pieri, Jonglei state on Wednesday.
Staff members and patients were unharmed and there were no reported casualties in the local community.
MSF reports that in Lankien, where it also runs medical facilities, its teams subsequently witnessed airstrikes without direct damage to infrastructure or reported casualties.
In both locations, all MSF staff remain safe, the organisation assured.
MSF said it had experienced multiple attacks on medical facilities this year, which forced the closure of Old Fangak and Ulang hospitals in May and June and the suspension of primary care activities in Jonglei, Upper Nile and Central Equatoria.
“The recent airstrike shows a deeply concerning pattern in which health care facilities are repeatedly hit or come under fire during persistent attacks,” said Emmerson Gono, MSF deputy head of mission in South Sudan.
The organisation has called for immediate protection of medical infrastructure, staff and patients in South Sudan.
Health needs result from ongoing conflict, displacement, recurrent floods and disease outbreaks.
South Sudan, the world’s newest country after attaining independence in 2011, relapsed into civil war two years later.
A unity government is currently under threat as rival parties that formed it bicker.
– CAJ News