Escalating Conflict: South Sudan Airstrike Hits Hospital

Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has reported that a hospital it operates in Lankien, South Sudan, was targeted in an airstrike by government forces on Tuesday night. This airstrike represents the tenth attack on a medical facility managed by MSF in the past year.

The hospital, located in the opposition-held Jonglei state, was evacuated before the attack due to forewarning. However, the assault injured one staff member and destroyed vital medical supplies. MSF condemned the incident, emphasizing that it had shared the GPS coordinates of its facilities with conflicting parties, yet the South Sudanese government, allegedly the only group capable of such aerial assaults, struck the hospital.

In a companion incident, the MSF facility in Pieri was looted earlier on Tuesday. The two medical centers are vital, serving around 250,000 people, but with the government blocking humanitarian access and opposition forces seizing territories, such crucial care remains at risk. The humanitarian crisis mounts as the United Nations highlights the growing population displacement and health needs in the region.