A medical aid charity says it is treating dozens of people wounded in fighting in Pibor since Tuesday afternoon, as civilians flee the violence or seek shelter at a UN base in the town.
As of 1:00 p.m. yesterday, NGO Doctors Without Borders was treating 35 patients but said it lacked surgical capacity to provide the level of treatment needed.
The death toll is not clear though sources confirmed to Radio Tamazuj that it has exceeded five.
The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) reported that fighting “between Murle factions” has been ongoing in Pibor town since Wednesday morning, including in the vicinity of the compound of Catholic Relief Services. Other sources, however, including MSF, reported the fighting had begun on Tuesday afternoon.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman of the United Nations Secretary-General, said yesterday, “Fighting around Pibor also continues along the Gumuruk Road area.”
UNMISS said that it was “engaging with political actors at a number of levels, both on the ground and in Juba, to help deescalate the situation.” Around 1,100 civilians sought protection near the UNMISS base in Pibor since the fighting started.
According to a Boma State official and a Murle tribe chief, the fighting is between loyalists of the newly appointed Governor Baba Medan and Cobra Faction forces loyal to David Yau Yau.
The fighting broke out after bodyguards of Governor Baba Medan arrived to Pibor earlier this week in preparation for the arrival of the governor, whom Kiir appointed in place of Yau Yau.
Located in South Sudan’s former Jonglei State, the Pibor Area was mostly peaceful throughout the last two years of civil war owing to a separate peace deal between the government and the SSDM/A Cobra Faction led by Yau Yau. The deal established Pibor as a partly autonomous area and permitted the Cobra Faction to select one of its own members to head the area as Chief Administrator.
In December, President Salva Kiir declared the Greater Pibor Administration ‘defunct’, replacing it with a new Boma State government headed by his own appointee, Baba Medan, who is not a member of the Cobra Faction. Yau Yau himself said that he accepted the president’s decision, though elements of the Cobra Faction reportedly threatened the use of violence to prevent the new governor from taking up his post.
MSF calls for parties to respect medical workers
In a press release, MSF said they witnessed a number of homes that have been destroyed in the violence. They also say their own medical compound had to be evacuated and was looted, but they have not been able to assess the extent of the damage to the compound.
“Yesterday afternoon, the MSF team was forced to seek safety in the MSF compound but as heavy gunfire approached the facility, the team was forced to move to the UNMISS compound. MSF staff brought medical equipment and supplies with them,” reads the press statement in part.
Corinne Benazech, MSF Head of Mission, warned that continuation of the fighting could interfere with their healthcare services in the Pibor area. “If we cannot restart activities this could make a bad situation catastrophic, since MSF provides the only healthcare in the area,” she said.
MSF is calling on all armed actors to respect international humanitarian law, which protects civilians, medical facilities and the provision of humanitarian assistance.
File photo/MSF