Hospital Patients in South Sudan Shot Dead in their Beds

Murder of sick people in South Sudan potentially drives away medical NGOs

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Hospital patients in South Sudan have been murdered in their beds and arson attacks have been perpetrated against medical facilities, reports AP, as violence in the country worsens.

The charity Doctors Without Borders or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned on Wednesday that their work has become almost impossible to carry out, after discovering 14 bodies in a hospital in the war-torn city of Malakal. Many of them had been shot while in their beds. The charity also claimed buildings used by MSF had been looted and destroyed.

South Sudan has been besieged by violence since mid-December when President Salva Kiir accused then Vice President Riek Machar of attempting to stage a coup. Control of the oil-rich city of Malakal has been violently contested by government forces and rebels loyal to Machar.

Raphael Gorgeu, MSF’s group leader in South Sudan, said the charity did not wish to abandon the country but questioned whether they would be able to “stay to the very last moment with the guarantee that our staff and patients will not be targeted.”

[AP]