Medical charity condemns deliberate bombing of its hospital in South Sudan

JUBA, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) on Sunday strongly condemned the deliberate bombing of its hospital early Saturday in Old Fangak, South Sudan's Jonglei State.

Mamman Mustapha, MSF head of mission in South Sudan, said the attack began at around 4:30 a.m. local time when two helicopter gunships first dropped a bomb on the pharmacy of the MSF hospital, burning it to the ground, then went on firing at the town of Old Fangak for around 30 minutes.

Mustapha said that at around 7:00 a.m., a drone bombed the Old Fangak market, killing at least seven people and injuring 20 others.

MSF said it received around 20 wounded people at its hospital in Old Fangak, including four in critical condition, amid reports of more fatalities and wounded in the community.

"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," Mustapha said in a statement issued in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.

According to the charity, one patient and two caregivers, including one of the staff members, who were already inside the hospital, were injured in the bombing. Patients who were not in critical condition ran from the facility.

It was not clear why the facility was targeted, but the charity said the bombing of the hospital resulted in significant damage, including the complete destruction of the pharmacy.

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

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 health care.

This is the second time an MSF hospital has been impacted in the past month, following the armed looting of its hospital and premises in Ulang, Upper Nile state, on April 14, which led to the entire population of Ulang County being cut off from accessing secondary health care, according to the charity. Enditem