At least 7 dead after Doctors Without Borders facility in South Sudan targeted in aerial bombing

The medical charity Doctors without Borders said Saturday that its facility in a remote part of South Sudan was targeted in an aerial bombing that killed at least seven people.

Fangak County Commissioner, Biel Butros Biel, told The Associated Press that a 9-month-old child was among the dead in the aerial attack. He added that at least 25 people were wounded, though an assessment of the damage was ongoing.

Doctors without Borders, known by its French initials, MSF, released a statement on X condemning the attack on its hospital, which is said to be the only source of medical care for 40,000 residents, including many people displaced by flooding.

The MSF head of mission called the attack “a clear violation of international humanitarian law.”

It was not immediately clear why the facility was targeted, apparently by government troops. A spokesman for South Sudan’s military could not be reached for comment. The hospital is located in a northern town known as Old Fangak.

A spokesperson for MSF said their hospital was hit by airstrikes shortly after 4 a.m. local time on Saturday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

The attack caused significant damage to the hospital’s pharmacy, destroying all medical supplies. There was no definitive word on casualties.

But Fangak County Commissioner, Biel Butros Biel, told the AP that at least four people were killed in the aerial attack, including a 9-month-old child. He added that at least 25 people were wounded, though an assessment of the damage was ongoing.

Additional strikes occurred hours later near the Old Fangak market, causing widespread panic and displacement of civilians, according to several eyewitnesses.

Old Fangak is one several major towns in Fangak county, an ethnically Nuer part of the country that has been historically associated with the opposition party loyal to Riek Machar, South Sudan’s first vice president who is now under house arrest for alleged subversion.

The attack on the hospital is the latest escalation in a government-led assault on opposition groups across the country.

Since March, government troops backed by soldiers from Uganda have conducted dozens of airstrikes targeting areas in neighboring Upper Nile State.