26 Doctors without Borders workers remain unaccounted for in South Sudan

NAIROBI, Kenya– More than two dozen Doctors Without Borders employees remain missing a month after the attacks in South Sudan, the medical charity said.

Two facilities belonging to the group, known by the French acronym MSF, were attacked on February 3 in Jonglei state, northeast of the capital, Juba, where violence has displaced around 280,000 people since December.

A hospital in the town of Lankien was bombed by government forces, MSF said, while another medical facility in the town of Pieri was attacked by “unknown attackers”. Both were located in opposition-controlled areas.

Staff working at both facilities fled alongside much of the local population to deeply rural areas where armed clashes and aerial bombardments continued.

MSF said in a statement on Monday that “26 of the 291 of our colleagues working in Lankien and Pieri are still missing.

“We lost contact with them in a context of persistent insecurity,” the statement said.

The lack of communication with his staff could be linked to limited network connectivity in much of the state. Staff members contacted described “destruction, violence and extreme hardship.”

Fighting intensified sharply in December, when opposition forces captured a series of government outposts in north-central Jonglei. In January, the government responded with a counteroffensive that reconquered most of the lost area.

Displaced people in Akobo, an opposition-held town near the Ethiopian border, described horrific violence by government fighters. Many described not being able to find food or water as they walked for days to safety.

The attacks on MSF facilities in Lankien and Pieri are part of a surge in violence against humanitarian staff, supplies and infrastructure, aid groups say. MSF facilities have been attacked 10 times in the past 12 months.

“This violence has had unbearable consequences not only on health services, but also on the very people who operated them,” said Yashovardhan, MSF head of mission in South Sudan, who uses only one name.

“Medical workers should never be targets,” he said. “We are deeply concerned about what happened to our colleagues and the communities we serve. »