Medical staff flee into bush amid insecurity of South Sudan

More than 30 staff of the international medical charity, Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF), and thousands of patients were on Friday forced to flee into the bush in Unity State of South Sudan due to increased insecurity. MSF Head of Mission Raphael Gorgeu said a team of 30 local MSF staff have taken dozens of the most severely ill patients from Leer Hospital with them into the bush, fearing for their safety. "In the last six weeks in South Sudan, our staff have worked in extreme conditions. We have been forced to evacuate multiple times, our facilities have been looted and our teams have operated in areas of active conflict," Gorgeu said in a statement issued in Nairobi. "Right now they have a very limited medical supply and when that supply runs out, the situation will become even more dire for people who depend on us for healthcare." The conflict between pro-and anti-government supporters in South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan in July 2011, has displaced more than 702,000 people across the country and sent another 123, 000 fleeing to neighboring countries in just over six weeks. There are hopes that the cessation of hostilities agreement signed in Ethiopia last week by representatives of President Salva Kiir and former deputy president Riek Machar will lead to an end to the fighting and help alleviate the plight of civilians in need. Since the beginning of the crisis, tens of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes in southern Unity State. This includes more than 10,000 the displaced from the fighting in Bentiu who had gathered in Leer and have now been displaced for a second time. Gorgeu said some of the patients who were well enough to leave of their own accord also fled, adding that there are no longer any patients or staff left at Leer Hospital. "Despite incredibly challenging circumstances, MSF local staff continued running the hospital in Leer for as long as they could," Gorgeu said. "However in the past three days, the situation became too unstable and the only way to provide medical care was to take patients out of the hospital and to flee with the population into the bush." He said 12 MSF non-local staff were forced to evacuate Leer due to rapidly deteriorating security on Jan. 21. Although most of the town had fled, many locally-hired MSF staff chose to remain in Leer and continue providing life-saving medical care in the hospital, until security no longer allowed. MSF is extremely worried for the safety and wellbeing of our staff and patients. "Leer Hospital was the only fully functioning hospital in southern Unity State and now that it is no longer safe to work in this medical facility, more than 270,000 people have no access to healthcare," Gorgeu said. "Our colleagues have shown tremendous dedication, continuing to care for patients with only basic medical kits, cleaning and dressing wounds, treating diseases like malaria and providing what healthcare they can," said Gorgeu.