South Sudan Hospital Shelled by Air Strike, NGO Reports. Lankien, South Sudan — A Doctors Without Borders hospital in Lankien, eastern Jonglei state, was struck Tuesday night during what the medical charity calls a government air raid, the tenth such incident affecting its facilities in South Sudan within 12 months. MSF said patients and staff had evacuated the site hours earlier after receiving warnings of a possible strike.
One employee sustained minor injuries, while the main supply depot was destroyed, wiping out medicines and equipment used to serve about 250,000 people in the rural area. Separately on the same day, the group reported that its clinic in Pieri, also in Jonglei, was ransacked by unidentified assailants and rendered unusable. Staff from both locations were forced to flee with local residents; their present whereabouts remain unclear as communication channels remain down, according to the organisation’s statement.
MSF previously supplied GPS coordinates of all its installations to South Sudanese authorities and warring factions, and says it received confirmation that the locations were known. “The government of South Sudan armed forces are the only armed party with the capacity to perform aerial attacks in the country,” operations manager Gul Badshah explained.
Jonglei has already seen an estimated 280,000 people uprooted by clashes and bombardments between December and this week, United Nations figures show.
The region suffers from acute food shortages and limited health coverage, with MSF warning that the twin assaults now leave both Lankien and Pieri without any functioning medical provider.
The charity, which has worked in the territory for more than four decades, says it will weigh “necessary decisions” on the safety of its teams.
It has already suspended all activities across parts of Jonglei, Upper Nile and Central Equatoria states following a wave of attacks that forced the closure of two hospitals in the Greater Upper Nile region earlier. Officials in Juba have not yet issued public comment on the incidents.
Further details are expected as communication lines reopen.
