CNN
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At least seven people were killed and 20 injured in an attack on South Sudan’s hospitals and markets on Saturday, medical charities said fears are growing that the country can return to civil war.
A borderless doctor, also known as Mé de cinnatis Sans Frontières (MSF), condemned an early morning attack on an old Whangak hospital in the state of Jonglei, located in the northeastern part of the country.
MSF said the helicopter gunship dropped a bomb at the pharmacy and fired it in town for 30 minutes.
The pharmacy burned to the ground, all medical supplies were lost in the attack, destroying the last remaining hospitals in the area. According to MSF, nearby private markets were also bombed by drones.
“The attack has significantly violated our ability to provide life-saving care at Old Whangak, the only hospital serving more than 110,000 people in the area,” MSF said.
It is not immediately clear why the hospital was targeted or who became who, but it is not immediately clear that the country is afraid it will return to civil war amid growing tensions between South Sudan’s President Salva Kier and Vice President Leek Machar.
MSF called on all parties for the conflict to respect and protect civilians and humanitarian infrastructure, adding that Saturday’s fatal attack was the second attack on the facility, which has been less than a month later. On April 14, an armed man looted MSF hospital in Uran, Upper Nile, and blocked access to secondary health care for thousands of people, the charity said.
Whangak County commissioner Beer Bootross Beer said in an audio message aired on local television that the government forces (South Sudan National Defense Force (SSPDF)) carried out attacks on hospitals and markets, expelling more than 30,000 civilians.
Whangak County is ethnically noore and has traditionally been associated with opposition parties loyal to Vice President Macher.
“The government is using natural resources to kill its people for its own identity,” Beal said it refers to a recent government directive labeling nine counties, including Whangak, as “hostile.” He condemned violence and urged the global community to act.
CNN contacted the South Sudan government for comment.
A day before the attack, embassies in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK and the US, alongside the EU, warned of the rapidly deteriorating security situation in South Sudan, demanding that President Kiel release Vice President Machar from house arrest.
“All political parties must end their use of violence as a political tool,” the state said in a joint statement.
South Sudan split from the rest of Sudan in 2011 after decades of independence, but has since struggled to maintain peace on its territory.
It is divided along the ethnic line between the majority of Dinkas from which Kiel came from, and the Nua ethnic group in Machar, the second largest in the country.
After Kiir deleted Macher as Vice President, he entered the civil war in 2013, and the five years of conflict that followed killed an estimated 400,000 people before both parties reached a fragile ceasefire and a power-sharing agreement in 2018.
Countries that have never held national elections are now governed by a coalition led by President Kiel and five vice presidents.
After Machar was arrested in March, SPLM/A-IO issued a statement that his detention “effectively destroys the (peace) agreement (between him and Kiel).
According to a 2025 UN Refugee Agency report, the situation in South Sudan is one of Africa’s most severe refugee crisis, with 2.3 million refugees and asylum seekers in neighboring countries, and another 2 million South Sudan has been evacuated internally by conflict or natural disasters in their own country.
