At least seven individuals, including a nine-month-old child, lost their lives and 20 others were injured following an aerial assault on a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Old Fangak, Jonglei State, South Sudan. The attack started on Saturday, May 3, 2025, around 4:30 a.m. local time. Two helicopter gunships targeted the hospital’s pharmacy, leading to its total destruction and significant damage to the facility. More details can be found here.
Ongoing assessments are being conducted to determine the complete scope of casualties and damage. The hospital serves as the sole medical care provider for approximately 110,000 residents in this remote area, including many displaced by flooding.
Mamman Mustapha, MSF Head of Mission in South Sudan, described the attack as deliberate and strongly condemned it.
Following the bombing of the hospital facility, the helicopters continued their assault on the town of Old Fangak for about 30 minutes. Around 7 a.m., a separate drone attack targeted the Old Fangak market. These subsequent strikes resulted in widespread panic and displacement among residents, eyewitnesses stated. During the attack, one patient and two caregivers, including an MSF staff member, were injured within the hospital.
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan labeled the bombing as a “calculated, unlawful attack on a protected medical facility” that may amount to a war crime. The Commission highlighted that targeting medical facilities contravenes the Geneva Conventions and represents a direct violation of humanitarian principles.
This event is the eighth attack on healthcare facilities in South Sudan since January 2025, resulting in the deaths of health workers and the looting or destruction of facilities. The World Health Organization representative in South Sudan has cautioned that such attacks could lead to the closure of half the health facilities along the Nile.
The bombing occurs amid rising tensions in South Sudan, with concerns that the nation might revert to civil war. The attack on the MSF hospital is part of a series of government-led offensives against opposition groups across the country. Since March, government forces, reportedly supported by Ugandan soldiers, have conducted numerous airstrikes on areas in neighboring Upper Nile State.
Old Fangak is situated in a predominantly Nuer region historically aligned with the opposition party of First Vice President Riek Machar, who was placed under house arrest in March 2025 for alleged subversion. The South Sudanese government recently designated Fangak and several other counties as “hostile” regions, a move the UN Commission has warned may lead to ethnic profiling and incite reprisals.
Biel accused government forces of executing the attack and claimed the government is “using natural resources to kill its own people” due to their perceived loyalty to opposition factions.
The day before the attack, the embassies of Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States, alongside the European Union, issued a joint statement warning of 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, the recent detention of Machar has raised international concerns that conflict may reignite in the world’s newest nation, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011.
The situation in South Sudan remains one of Africa’s most severe humanitarian challenges, with 2.3 million refugees and asylum-seekers in neighboring countries and approximately two million internally displaced within South Sudan due to conflict or natural disasters.
France has also issued a statement condemning the helicopter and drone attack on the MSF hospital, emphasizing that international humanitarian law mandates the protection of civilians, humanitarian workers, and infrastructure.
This marks the second incident involving an MSF hospital this month. On April 14, armed men looted an MSF hospital in Ulang, Upper Nile State, cutting off access to secondary healthcare for thousands in that area.
