At least seven reportedly killed in South Sudan hospital bombing

At least seven people have reportedly been killed and another 20 injured in an attack on a town in South Sudan, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, has said, as fears grow that the world’s youngest nation will relapse into all-out civil war.

MSF said in statement that it “strongly condemned the deliberate bombing of its hospital in Old Fangak” on Saturday and that the attack destroyed the last remaining functioning hospital and pharmacy there in the north of the country.

MSF initially urged in an X post: “Stop the bombing. Protect civilians. Protect healthcare.” It said the attack was “a clear violation of international law”.

It was not immediately clear why the facility was targeted.

A report by Aljazeera showed that spokesperson for South Sudan’s military could not be reached for comment, according to The Associated Press news agency.

Mamman Mustapha, Head of Mission with MSF in South Sudan, told Al Jazeera from the capital Juba that his team on the ground reported “two helicopter gunships attacking the hospital.”

Mustapha said the helicopters bombed the hospital and its medical supplies, then “continued shelling the town of Old Fangak.”

“The civilian population has fled and the situation is quite horrific and catastrophic … We are quite shocked. The hospital has been there for 10 years, since 2014,” he added.

A further MSF statement said, “The attack began at around 4:30am (02:30GMT) when two helicopter gunships first dropped a bomb on the MSF pharmacy, burning it to the ground, then went on to fire on the town of Old Fangak for around 30 minutes…There are reports of more fatalities and wounded in the community.”

Additional attacks took place hours later near a market in Old Fangak, causing widespread panic and displacement of civilians, according to several witnesses.