Heavy fighting in South Sudan’s Upper Nile resulted in the wounding of at least 126 people, according to medical sources. The total casualties could actually be far higher, but that is the known number of gunshot victims who reached two hospitals in the area in the last three days.
“During the recent fighting, MSF teams treated 116 people with gunshot wounds in Malakal and Nasser,” the organization Doctors Without Borders said in a press release Tuesday.
The hospital in Malakal received another 10 people by Wednesday afternoon, an MSF communications officer told Radio Tamazuj, bringing the total number of gunshot victims up to 126.
Of the 126 people admitted to hospitals, 94 of them were at the Nasser hospital in opposition-held territory and 32 were at the Malakal hospital in the contested capital of the state.
The patients admitted to the hospital in Nasser were brought there from Malakal where they were wounded in the fighting. According to MSF, the fighting has prevented them from accessing areas where there may be more wounded or displaced people in need of medical care.
“MSF calls on all parties to this conflict to respect the integrity of medical facilities, to allow aid organisations to access affected communities, and to allow patients to receive medical treatment irrespective of their origin or ethnicity,” said the organization.
Col. Philip Aguer, spokesman of the army, said on Thursday evening he had no information about the number of SPLA casualties in the fighting around Malakal. He noted that phone networks were still down in the city today.
Photo: Soldiers in Bentiu, 12 January 2014 (AP/Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin)