At least seven individuals, including an infant aged nine months, lost their lives when a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Old Fangak, Jonglei State, South Sudan, was targeted in an aerial bombing on Saturday, May 3.
The incident began at approximately 4:30 a.m. local time as two helicopter gunships released a bomb on the hospital’s pharmacy, resulting in its complete destruction and extensive damage to the facility.
Biel Butros Biel, the Fangak County Commissioner, reported that at least 25 individuals sustained injuries in the attack, with assessments ongoing to determine the full scope of casualties and damage. This hospital is the sole provider of medical services for around 110,000 residents in the isolated area, which includes many people displaced by flooding.
Mamman Mustapha, MSF Head of Mission in South Sudan, labeled the attack as intentional and strongly condemned it.
Following the bombing of the hospital, the helicopters continued to fire on the town of Old Fangak for about 30 minutes. Later, at around 7 a.m., a drone targeted the Old Fangak market. Eyewitnesses report that these additional attacks led to widespread panic and displacement among civilians. A patient and two caregivers, including an MSF staff member present in the hospital during the attack, were injured.
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan described the bombing as a “calculated, unlawful attack on a protected medical facility” potentially constituting a war crime. The Commission highlighted that attacking medical facilities violates the Geneva Conventions and undermines humanitarian principles.
This marks the eighth attack on healthcare facilities in South Sudan since January 2025, resulting in the deaths of health workers and damage or looting of facilities. The World Health Organization representative in South Sudan has cautioned that such incidents could lead to the closure of half of the health facilities along the Nile.
This bombing occurs amid rising tensions in South Sudan, with increasing fears of a return to civil war. The assault on the MSF hospital is part of a broader government-led campaign against opposition groups nationwide. Since March, government forces, allegedly supported by Ugandan troops, have conducted numerous airstrikes in neighboring Upper Nile State.
Old Fangak lies in a predominantly Nuer region historically aligned with the opposition party loyal to First Vice President Riek Machar, who was placed under house arrest in March 2025 for alleged subversion. The South Sudanese government has recently labeled Fangak and several other counties as “hostile” territories, a move the UN Commission has warned may lead to ethnic profiling and retaliation.
Biel accused government forces of carrying out the attack, alleging that the government is “using natural resources to kill its own people” due to their perceived allegiance to opposition groups.
A day before the attack, the embassies of Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States, along with the European Union, issued a joint statement expressing concern over South Sudan’s rapidly deteriorating security situation. They urged President Salva Kiir to release Vice President Machar from house arrest and called for all parties to “end the use of violence as a political tool.”
South Sudan has been officially at peace since a 2018 agreement ended a five-year civil war between forces loyal to President Kiir and those supporting Machar. However, Machar’s recent arrest has raised international apprehensions about a potential resurgence of conflict in the world’s youngest country, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011.
The situation in South Sudan remains one of Africa’s most severe humanitarian crises, with 2.3 million refugees and asylum-seekers in neighboring nations and around two million internally displaced within the country due to conflict or natural disasters.
France has also condemned the helicopter and drone attack on the MSF hospital, emphasizing the importance of protecting civilians, humanitarian workers, and infrastructure under international humanitarian law.
This incident is the second involving an MSF hospital in the past month. On April 14, armed individuals looted an MSF hospital in Ulang, Upper Nile State, disrupting access to secondary healthcare for thousands of people in that area.