South Sudan hospital hit by government airstrike, Doctors Without Borders says

NAIROBI, Kenya — Humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders said one of its hospitals in South Sudan was hit by an airstrike carried out by government forces.

The incident, on Tuesday night, marks the 10th attack in 12 months on a medical facility in the country run by the group, which is also known as Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF.

The hospital is located in Lankien, a town in the state of Jonglei where opposition-held areas have been at the center of renewed fighting in recent weeks between government troops and opposition forces.

Lankien had been evacuated hours before Tuesday airstrike after MSF received information about a possible attack. One staff member was injured, and the hospital's main warehouse was destroyed along with medical supplies, the group said in a statement.

''MSF shared the GPS coordinates of our facilities with the government and other parties to the conflict,'' operations manager Gul Badshah said. ''The government of South Sudan armed forces are the only armed party with the capacity to perform aerial attacks in the country."

Government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny and army spokesman Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang did not respond to requests for comment.

In a separate incident earlier on Tuesday, a MSF facility in the village of Pieri was looted by ''unknown assailants,'' the group said. Pieri is also in opposition-held Jonglei.

On Jan. 25, the army launched ''Operation Enduring Peace,'' which it said aimed to recapture towns that had been recently seized by opposition forces and ''restore law and order.''

Civilians were ordered to evacuate three counties in Jonglei immediately, and aid groups were told to leave within 48 hours.

In December, a coalition of opposition forces seized a string of government outposts in central Jonglei, homeland of the Nuer ethnic group and a longtime opposition stronghold.

Some of those forces are loyal to opposition leader Riek Machar, while others consider themselves part of an ethnic Nuer militia called the White Army.

Machar was suspended last year as South Sudan's first vice president after White Army fighters overran a military garrison in the town of Nasir. He now faces treason charges over that attack, which authorities allege Machar helped orchestrate. Machar's allies deny the allegations.

The day before the army announced its offensive, a senior military commander was filmed urging his forces to kill all civilians and destroy property during operations in Jonglei. His words drew rebuke from the United Nations and others who warned of the increased risk of violence against civilians.

Jonglei is among the most food-insecure parts of the country and faces severe health needs, analysts say. The U.N. said an estimated 280,000 people have been displaced by fighting and aerial bombardments there since December.

On Monday, MSF accused the government of blocking humanitarian access in opposition-held areas.