NAIROBI, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Médecins Sans Frontières said its hospital in South Sudan’s Jonglei state, where it serves more than 200,000 people, was hit by an airstrike on Tuesday night, destroying the hospital’s main warehouse and most of its critical medical supplies.
The charity said in a statement that South Sudanese government forces were the only armed party in the country with the capacity to perform aerial attacks.
Jonglei state’s information minister declined comment when contacted by Reuters, directing all questions to the army.
An army spokesperson did not answer calls seeking comment.
Clashes that the United Nations says are occurring at a scale not seen since 2017 have been convulsing South Sudan for months, raising fears of a rekindling of civil war in Africa’s youngest country.
Some of the fiercest fighting has taken place in Jonglei, located in the country’s east on the border with Ethiopia, where government forces are seeking to halt an offensive by fighters loyal to Sudan People’s Liberation Army-in-Opposition (SPLA-IO).
MSF said one of its staff members had suffered minor injuries in the airstrike on the hospital in Lankien, adding it had evacuated the hospital and discharged patients hours earlier after receiving information about a possible attack.
In a separate incident earlier on Tuesday, MSF said its health facility in Pieri, also in Jonglei, was looted by unknown assailants, rendering it unusable.
MSF said it was the only health provider serving about 250,000 people in Lankien and Pieri.
Late last month South Sudan’s military ordered civilians and personnel from the United Nations mission and all charities to evacuate three counties in Jonglei state ahead of an operation there against opposition forces.
The U.N. mission has said that at least 180,000 people in Jonglei have been displaced by recent fighting.
South Sudan’s 2013-18 civil war was fought along largely ethnic lines and cost about 400,000 lives.
(Writing by Vincent Mumo Nzilani;Editing by Alexander Winning and Aidan Lewis)
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