Juba, 24 July 2018 (SSNA) — International medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders (MSF) has suspended most of its activities in Maban, South Sudan, after suffering a violent attack on Monday 23 July.
Yesterday morning, a group of unidentified armed men broke into MSF office and compound, looting the organisation and staff’s properties, burning down a tent full of equipment and destroying most of the vehicles and communication devices. No MSF staff were physically injured during the attack. The team is now safe and the organisation is currently monitoring the situation.
The attack has forced MSF to suspend the majority of its medical support to the host communities and the refugee population in Maban area, where the organisation operates a primary and secondary healthcare hospital in Doro refugee camp and ensures primary healthcare consultations in Bunj State Hospital.
“Despite the attack to our facilities, our team on the ground will keep ensuring life-saving treatment to patients suffering from the most critical medical conditions,” says MSF head of mission in South Sudan Samuel Theodore. “However, as the safety of healthcare personnel and facilities cannot be guaranteed, we have no other choice but to suspend the rest of our activities, which will leave 88,000 people with limited access to much needed medical services.”
MSF condemns this brutal attack and calls for the respect and protection of humanitarian workers and health facilities.
MSF has been working in Maban since 2011, providing healthcare to host communities and refugee populations in Doro refugee camp and, in collaboration with local authorities, inside Bunj State Hospital. From January to June this year, the organisation provided 84,869 outpatients consultations, ensured 1,317 deliveries and treated 4,971 patients for malaria and 905 children for malnutrition.