A Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) health facility was hit in an airstrike by a helicopter gunship on the morning of Wednesday, December 3, in the town of Pieri, Jonglei state, South Sudan. This strike is part of an alarming trend of attacks affecting medical facilities in the country.
MSF teams found bullets that hit the Pieri Primary Health Care Center, but staff members and patients were unharmed and there were no reported casualties in the local community. In Lankien, where MSF also runs medical facilities, our teams subsequently witnessed airstrikes without direct damage to infrastructure or reported casualties.
In both locations, all MSF staff remain safe. MSF is the only health care provider in Pieri, and the MSF Lankien hospital is the only secondary health care facility providing lifesaving care in the region.
MSF has 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. "We call for immediate protection of medical infrastructure, staff, and patients in South Sudan.”
MSF operates a wide range of medical programs in South Sudan, responding to health needs resulting from ongoing conflict, displacement, recurrent floods, and disease outbreaks. These needs remain extremely high amid a marked decrease in international funding for humanitarian and development programs, and the precarious state of the national health care system.
