Hospital bombed in Sudan’s South Kordofan

The Sudanese Air Force on Monday partially destroyed a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in South Kordofan. “As bombs struck the village of Farandallah on Monday, two hit the MSF hospital there. Five people were wounded in the village, and one MSF staff member was injured at the hospital,” the international aid group said in a statement released today (Tuesday). The damage was significant, according to MSF. The emergency room, a dressing room, the pharmacy, and the hospital kitchen were destroyed. “But MSF will continue to work there,” MSF head of mission Brian Moller stressed. “We are shocked that a medical facility can be bombed, especially since it was clearly identified with a flag and a cross on the roof,” Moller said. “We also had previously communicated the hospital’s position to the authorities in Khartoum.” Sudan’s military spokesman El Sawarmi Khaled Sa’ad told AFP that no military aircrafts had been used in the area. “We did not attack any hospital there because our target does not concern civilians,” he said. Between 18 May and 13 June, Sudanese forces bombed and shelled ten villages in South Kordofan, according to the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement- North (SPLM-N). Fighter jets and long-range artillery stationed in Kadugli launched 2,153 bombs and missiles in less than a month at villages in Um Dorain county. Ten people were killed and 40 injured. Eight schools, three mosques, three churches, four health units, and seven water installations were destroyed. The attacks led to the displacement of 35,615 people from Um Dorain. Early May, the Mother of Mercy Catholic Hospital in Gidel near Kauda was bombarded. File photo: A hospital run by MSF in the area of Abyei, South Kordofan (Marcell Nimfuehr/MSF)  Related: ‘Attacks on South Kordofan displace 35,615’: SPLM-N (16 June 2014) EU concerned about bombing of hospital in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains (12 May 2014)