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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 24 april 2018

Attacks on South Sudan health facilities, workers increasing

By SAM MEDNICK killed medical personnel Armed men looted health
Associated Press and aid workers as a tactic facilities in Wau County
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — of war, according to the re- "taking drugs, equipment,
Everyone and everything port, based on more than the generator, even the
is a target in South Sudan's 90 interviews and focusing roof, the windows and the
civil war, as attacks against on the Greater Upper Nile, doors. Of course no servic-
health facilities and aid Bahr el Ghazal and Equato- es are being delivered," Dr.
workers increase, a new re- ria regions. Edmund Sebit, senior medi-
port says. "I have never seen anything cal officer at the teaching
At least 50 medical institu- like what I saw in South Su- hospital in Wau city, told
tions were attacked in 2016 dan. Parties to the conflict the AP during a visit last
and 2017, says the report are attacking health care year.
released Monday by the and regularly denying hu- Some people in the coun-
New York-based Watchlist manitarian access in tan- ty were forced to walk for
on Children and Armed dem. The result has been hours, even days, for care,
Conflict. In at least 750 inci- man-made public health some dying on the way, he
dents over the same period crises such as cholera and In this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017, a community said.
leader stands in what used to be one of the main medical cen-
humanitarian access was famine and the most vul- ters, but is no longer operational after being looted and dam- In the Equatoria town of
denied by various armed nerable, children, are the aged when fighting came to the region in July 2016, in Lainya, Lainya in November the AP
groups, including govern- most impacted," Christine South Sudan. visited the primary medi-
ment troops. Monaghan, a research of- Associated Press cal center, now closed.
Both government and op- ficer with the Watchlist, told Smashed glass, broken fur-
position forces have delib- The Associated Press. Yemen and Afghanistan. 1997-2014. South Sudan's niture, scattered papers
erately destroyed, burned, She called it a "sharp rise" One study by Human Rights civil war began in Decem- and damaged equipment
looted and occupied from previous years, putting Watch documented 48 at- ber 2013. were strewn across the
hospitals and clinics and South Sudan in the com- tacks on health services The effects of the five-year floor. Locals said "men in
detained, abducted and pany of places like Syria, over a 17-year period, from conflict are far-reaching. uniform" attacked the cen-
The fighting has killed un- ter when fighting spread to
told tens of thousands, the region in 2016.
Jailed Egyptian photojournalist displaced millions and Both the government and
plunged parts of the coun-
the opposition have de-
wins U.N. press freedom prize try into famine. The East nied attacking medical fa-
African country's already
cilities or using them as mili-
fragile health care system
has been devastated. tary bases.
"It's not SPLA's policy to at-
PARIS (AP) — The United said the award, which rec- on culture and science in- In one attack in July, six tack or destroy social ame-
Nations' cultural agency ig- ognizes work that promotes stead. The U.N. Working armed men broke into the nities," army spokesman Lul
nored warnings from Egypt freedom of the press, es- Group on Arbitrary Deten- Doctors Without Borders Ruai Koang told AP.
and awarded the World pecially under dangerous tions has called Shawkan's compound in the town of Opposition spokesman
Press Freedom Prize Mon- conditions, "pays tribute to arrest arbitrary and said Pibor, threatening humani- Lam Paul Gabriel said
day to an imprisoned Egyp- his courage, resistance and his continued detention in- tarians, stealing phones health facilities are always
tian photographer. commitment to freedom of fringes on his human rights. and computers and injur- left for community use.
An independent jury pan- expression." The $25,000 World Press ing two staff members, the However, rights groups say
el for the United Nations Egypt's Foreign Ministry Freedom Prize was estab- new report says. the attacks and denial of
Educational, Scientific and strongly warned UNESCO lished in 1997 to honor Guill- By the end of last year at humanitarian access have
Cultural Organization gave on Sunday against recog- ermo Cano Isaza, a Co- least 20 percent of South continued for years.
the honor to Mahmoud nizing Shawkan, saying he lombian newspaper editor Sudan's 1,900 medical fa- "Since this war started we
Abu Zeid, a photojournalist faced terror-related charg- who was gunned down cilities had been shut down have seen both sides at-
known as Shawkan. es. Egypt's parliament outside El Espectador's of- due to the fighting, leaving tack health workers, clinics
He has been jailed since speaker, Ali Abdel-Al, said fices in Bogota in 1986. 70 percent of civilians with- and hospitals in total dis-
August 2013, when he was Monday "the organization Drug traffickers are be- out access to adequate regard of the protections
arrested in Cairo in while has tried before to take a lieved to have ordered Ca- health care, according to accorded to them under
covering a demonstra- political approach in some no's assassination because the United Nations. international humanitarian
tion at Rabaa Al-Adawiya issues that led some coun- of his work documenting Doctors across the country law," said Jehanne Henry,
Square. tries to walk out." He urged the effects of the Colom- say people are dying as a senior researcher for Hu-
Jury President Maria Ressa UNESCO to keep its focus bian drug trade.q result. man Rights Watch.q