South Sudan: Médecins Sans Frontières treats bullet wounded following Jonglei State clashes

Juba, 9 July 2010. Following a series of cattle raids that started on 27 June near Lekwongole in Jonglei State, Médecins Sans Frontières treated five male patients for violent trauma wounds, between the ages of two and 30.

From its outreach post in Lekwongole, Médecins Sans Frontières transferred a four year old boy with head injuries and four patients with gunshot wounds (aged two, nine, 29 and 30) to its larger clinic in Pibor. There the medical team stabilised the patients before evacuating the gunshot wounded by Médecins Sans Frontières plane for urgent surgery in Boma.

“In Pibor and Lekwongole, people continue to fear violence. At the slightest sign of trouble, mothers panic, gather their children and belongings together and flee in every direction,” says Rob Mulder, Head of Mission in Southern Sudan.

“For those in need of surgery, evacuation by air to hospital is their only hope. However, as the rains get heavier and landing strips turn to mud fields, this becomes increasingly difficult. Recent fighting also aggravates rising food insecurity in the current hunger gap, as commercial food trucks afraid of being ambushed stop travelling from Juba to Pibor market,” he added.

Due to insecurity and heavy rains, Médecins Sans Frontières teams in Pibor are unable to access both their outreach medical posts in Gumuruk and Lekwongole. However, life-saving activities continue in Pibor.

Apart from a small Ministry of Health facility in Pibor town, Médecins Sans Frontières is the only other primary healthcare provider in an area of 150,000 people, where villages are separated by large distances and roads are often impassable. This year, Médecins Sans Frontières has already admitted 580 severely malnourished children to its ambulatory therapeutic feeding programme in Pibor.

Médecins Sans Frontières has worked in Sudan since 1978 and today runs projects across several states, including Jonglei, Upper Nile, Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal, Central and Western Equatoria, the transitional area of Abyei, North Darfur, Red Sea and Al Gedaref States.