AT LEAST seven people have been killed after a hospital in a remote part of South Sudan was targeted in an aerial bombing, Doctors Without Borders said on Saturday.
The medical facility is located in Old Fangak, 295 miles north of Juba, the capital.
The medical charity, also known by its French initials as MSF, released a statement slamming the attack on its hospital, said to be the only source of medical care for 40,000 residents, including many people displaced by flooding.
The early morning attack saw two helicopter gunships drop a bomb on a pharmacy, burning it to the ground, the statement said. In addition to seven deaths, 20 people were reportedly injured.
MSF said the attack was “a clear violation of international law.”
Additional strikes occurred hours later near a market in Old Fangak, causing widespread panic and displacement of civilians, according to several eyewitnesses.
Old Fangak is one of several major towns in Fangak county, an ethnically Nuer part of the country that has been historically associated with the opposition party loyal to Riek Machar, South Sudan’s first vice president, who is now under house arrest for alleged subversion.
A spokesperson for South Sudan’s military could not be reached for comment.