NAIROBI: Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Friday denounced restrictions on humanitarian access in South Sudan as fighting has intensified between rival factions over the past month.
Fighting erupted in Jonglei state, north of the capital Juba, in late December, in the latest clashes between factions loyal to President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival, Riek Machar, displacing at least 180,000 people according to the United Nations.
MSF is the only health provider to almost 400,000 people in the state, it said, saying the government has blocked humanitarian flights to the Lankien, Pieri, and Akobo areas, preventing them from supplying medicines and personnel as well as evacuating critical patients.
Its team in Pieri was forced to evacuate its facility on Thursday due to the imminent danger of armed conflict, it said in a statement, discharging patients and grabbing emergency kits as they fled the town with the local population.
“Patients will die if the government continues to block humanitarian and medical access in Jonglei,” said Abdalla Hussein, MSF desk manager for South Sudan in the statement.
