Doctors Without Borders

[Press Release] South Sudan: MSF Hospital Severely Damaged in Intentional Attack

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:11:00 GMT

South Sudan 2013 © Vikki Stienen/MSF

Destroyed medical supplies litter the ground outside the MSF hospital in Pibor.

BRUSSELS/NEW YORK, May 16, 2013—The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today strongly condemned the deliberate damage and looting of its hospital in Pibor town, in South Sudan's Jonglei State, which has left tens of thousands of people without access to essential medical care.

The hospital's infrastructure was systematically damaged May 11–12 in order to render it unusable without major repairs. Therapeutic medical food and hospital beds were looted. The MSF structure is the only hospital facility for Pibor County, with the nearest alternative more than 90 miles away. The hospital's closure leaves roughly 100,000 people cut off from health care. Many of them have fled to the bush amid conflict between the South Sudan Army (SPLA) and the David YauYau armed militia group.

"A special effort was made to destroy drug supplies by strewing them on the ground, to cut and slash the warehouse tents, to ransack the hospital wards, and even to cut electricity cables and rip them from the walls," said Richard Veerman, MSF operations coordinator for South Sudan.

From January to March, the Pibor hospital treated 3,000 people and provided surgical care to more than 100 people suffering war-related injuries, including SPLA soldiers. Prior to the attack, MSF was forced to suspend activities in Pibor on April 19 because of threats and intimidation of staff and patients.

"The rainy season has just started and we know from previous years that malaria and respiratory diseases such as pneumonia will start to claim lives if there is no health care available," Veerman said. In a report issued in November last year, South Sudan's Hidden Crisis, MSF documented the devastating health consequences when people are forced to flee to the bush.

An MSF team was preparing to return and restart medical activities when the looting and destruction took place. It was the sixth time an MSF medical facility has been looted or damaged in Jonglei State in the past two years.

"It is unthinkable that there will be no health care whatsoever for the next six months for some 100,000 frightened and vulnerable people hiding in the swamps," Veerman said. "Unless we can return to resume medical activities and have the freedom to move to wherever people need assistance, this unthinkable scenario may become the horrific reality."

MSF urges the Government of South Sudan to meet its responsibilities to ensure full respect of medical humanitarian facilities and activities. MSF also calls urgently for assurances from all parties in the Jonglei State conflict that its medical teams have unhindered freedom to return to Pibor and the ability to reach out impartially to people in need of medical assistance, on either side of the conflict. Humanitarian and medical assistance is urgently needed in Pibor County and must be resumed in the coming days or weeks.

MSF works in Akobo, Nyirol, Pibor, and Uror counties in Jonglei State. The activities in all locations, including Gumuruk Clinic in Pibor County, continue to function, with the exception of the hospital in Pibor town and the MSF clinic in the village of Lekwongole in Pibor County, which was targeted and damaged in August 2012 and where insecurity and fighting have made access impossible for MSF.

[Press Release] DRC: MSF Treats Survivors of Attack on Village in North Kivu

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:11:00 GMT

DRC 2008 © MSF

Patients recover from surgery in an MSF facility in Rutshuru, North Kivu Province.

GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO/NEW YORK, MAY 16, 2013—Men armed with bayonets, machetes, and wooden clubs attacked the village of Mpeti in North Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo on the morning of May 14, killing and seriously injuring civilians, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which is treating survivors of the attack, said today.

Among the wounded under treatment at Mweso Hospital, some 25 miles from Mpeti, are two young children, one of whom was orphaned in the attack. The mother and 18-month-old baby brother of the other child under treatment were also killed.

"This was a deplorable and brutal attack in which young children were targeted and their parents killed," said Hugues Robert, MSF’s head of mission in Goma. "MSF condemns in the strongest terms attacks of this kind against civilians."

Two young children with multiple stab injuries in the chest, back, and head and one adult male with multiple stab injuries in the back and neck were admitted to the MSF facility, according to MSF Surgeon Martin Jarmin. "Currently all patients are stable and we hope they will make a good recovery," he said.

Survivors described indiscriminate violence aimed at civilians, resulting in many deaths. Corpses were apparently thrown in a river.

"I suspect that many more died in Mpeti during this attack, either directly from their injuries or because they were unable to get immediate medical attention in the hours that followed," said Robert. "I fear that the patients we have been able to treat are just the tip of the iceberg."

MSF supports a health center in Mpeti that treats roughly 300 patients per week, mostly for malaria and other common diseases. Since the beginning of the year, insecurity and fighting between armed militias in control of different parts of the area have repeatedly forced Mpeti's roughly 1,000 residents to flee their homes and at times prevented the MSF medical team from accessing patients in need. The village is fully deserted at the moment.

[Slideshow] A Critical Situation for Sudanese Refugees in Yida

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:11:00 GMT

Civilians have been fleeing the conflict between Sudanese government forces and rebels from the North Sudanese People Liberation Movement (SPLM-North) in Sudan's South Kordofan region since June 2011. The only option for many displaced people is to seek refuge in the camp of Yida, just on the other side of the border in South Sudan. As Yida's population continues to grow, the camp's location has become a source of complex political tensions that increasingly threaten the condition of the refugees.