By The City Review

Medical charity, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), on Friday condemned the attack on Morobo County Hospital in Central Equatoria State. Gunmen invaded the hospital and stole medical supplies, robbed staff, and set ablaze two ambulances.

“While no staff or patients sustained physical injuries during this incident, such acts of violence severely undermine the already fragile provision of critical healthcare services in an area where communities face limited access to essential medical care.,” MSF said in a statement.

The hospital is one of the public facilities supported by the medical charity in Yei and

Morobo counties. MSF supports the maternity unit of the hospital through the provision of

medical supplies, medical training and bedside coaching, as well as contributions to staff

salaries. However, no MSF staff was at the facility during the attack.

“The volatile security situation in Yei and Morobo counties continues to present persistent

challenges for the delivery of medical and humanitarian services,” the hospital statement read.

In May, for instance, MSF reduce its outreach services in Yei County due to increased insecurity,

disrupting access to healthcare for many vulnerable communities.

Attacks on healthcare facilities are a grave violation of international humanitarian law and are

utterly unacceptable. “MSF urgently calls on all parties to the ongoing conflict in South Sudan to

uphold their obligations to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, including health workers,

patients, and medical facilities. Hospitals must never be targeted,” it said.

The attack comes barely two weeks since MSF completely shutdown its facility in Ulang County, citing insecurity. The move ended support to the 13 community-based health facilities and left 150,000 people with less access to healthcare, in an area where MSF’s maternal services are a lifeline, the organization noted.

Despite these closures, MSF said it would continue to support healthcare needs of displaced and vulnerable people in Ulang and Nasir counties. “We have a mobile emergency team assessing needs who are prepared to provide short-term healthcare services wherever security conditions and access allow,” it stated.

In January 2025, MSF was attacked by unknown gunmen near Nasir, who shot at its boards as they returned from delivering medical supplies to Nasir County hospital. “This attack forced us to suspend all outreach activities in Nasir and Ulang counties, which included medical referrals by boat along the Sobat River that allowed women to deliver their babies safely.”

Three months later, in April 2025, armed individuals forced their way into the hospital in Ulang where they threatened staff and patients and looted the hospital so extensively that MSF no longer had the necessary resources to continue operations safely and effectively.

“They took everything: medical equipment, laptops, patients’ beds and mattresses from the wards, and approximately nine months’ worth of medical supplies, including two planeloads of surgical kits and drugs delivered just the week before. Whatever they could not carry, they destroyed,” said Zakaria Mwatia, MSF head of mission for South Sudan.

Within a month, another MSF hospital was bombed in Old Fangak, a town in the neighbouring Jonglei state, leaving the facility completely non-functional. This is part of a worrying rise in attacks on healthcare facilities in South Sudan.