Not less than seven folks have been killed and 20 others injured after a hospital and a neighborhood market have been bombed in South Sudan’s Jonglei State, in response to the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), as tensions mount and warnings of renewed civil struggle intensify.

MSF reported {that a} helicopter gunship dropped a bomb on the pharmacy of the hospital it runs in Previous Fangak—burning the power to the bottom—earlier than opening hearth in town for about half-hour. Shortly afterward, a drone reportedly struck a close-by market.

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The hospital, which was the one healthcare facility serving over 110,000 residents of Fangak County, was fully destroyed within the assault, together with all medical provides. The charity denounced the assault as a “clear violation of worldwide humanitarian regulation.”

Chatting with the BBC’s Newshour, MSF spokesperson Mamman Mustapha stated the group was nonetheless verifying the small print however famous that native eyewitnesses recognized the helicopters as belonging to authorities forces.

“The hospital is clearly marked as a hospital with our emblem,” Mustapha emphasised. “Now we have shared our coordinates with all combatants within the space, so the hospital ought to be identified to either side.”

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There was no official response from the South Sudanese authorities. The BBC has contacted the Ministry of International Affairs for remark.

The assault comes amid rising fears of a return to large-scale battle in South Sudan. Nicholas Haysom, head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), lately warned that the nation is “teetering getting ready to a return to full-scale civil struggle.”

Tensions have escalated between President Salva Kiir and his long-time political rival, Vice-President Riek Machar. Simply hours earlier than the bombing, military chief Paul Majok Nang vowed punitive strikes in retaliation for the hijacking of a number of river barges. He blamed the assaults on a militia allegedly linked to Machar, although the vice-president has not publicly responded to the accusations.

Machar was arrested in March, together with a number of of his allies, over claims that he was trying to incite rise up. In current weeks, the federal government has labeled a number of counties as “hostile”—a designation broadly interpreted as figuring out areas aligned with Machar.

Observers concern these developments may reignite the ethnic divisions that fueled the nation’s brutal civil struggle from 2013 to 2018. That battle, triggered when President Kiir dismissed Machar as vice-president, resulted in an estimated 400,000 deaths and displaced over 2.5 million folks.

Although a peace deal was signed in 2018, putting in each Kiir and Machar in a unity authorities, key provisions stay unfulfilled. Elections have been repeatedly delayed, and the mixing of assorted militias right into a unified nationwide military has stalled.

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The newest surge in violence started earlier this yr when the White Military—a militia traditionally allied with Machar—clashed with authorities forces in Higher Nile State and captured a navy base in Nasir. In March, a United Nations helicopter evacuating troops from the area got here underneath hearth, killing a number of, together with a senior military common.

Human rights organizations are actually urging South Sudan’s navy to stop assaults on civilian targets and recommit to defending humanitarian areas.

With political tensions surging and violence spilling into civilian areas, South Sudan seems dangerously near slipping again into battle—a transfer that would undo years of fragile peacebuilding efforts.