Military medical personnel running the Bor Hospital face a shortage of medicines since the government retook the capital of Jonglei for the third time from defected soldiers three weeks ago.
The hospital was temporarily made the base of an SPLA medical team to take care of soldiers with illnesses or injuries. The Ministry of Health has not yet resumed their work at the hospital.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Tuesday, 2nd-Lt. Peter Kuot said that the military doctors tried to extend services to the remnant of the civil population in the town because there are no other clinics, though they only have enough medicine for the army.
He added that they treated 200 people in the last week and referred 25 cases to Juba for further treatment, including cases of malaria, typhoid, diarrhea and bullet wounds.
Kuot explained, “We can give what little medicine we have, but after the health ministry staff arrive, we can move back to the barracks to serve our colleagues, the soldiers.”
“We don’t have enough medicines. The small amount of medicines that we have were from our army,” he noted.
Elsewhere on the grounds of the hospital there is still a huge warehouse full of many drugs, belonging to one of the aid agencies. Although some drugs were looted, the bulk of the storehouse was untouched.
File photo: A wounded soldier sits with a colleague at Juba Military Hospital, South Sudan, 28 December 2013 (Ben Curtis, AP)