The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan condemned an aerial bombing of a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Fangak county by the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) as an atrocity crime on Tuesday. According to MSF, two helicopter gunships carried out the strike that obliterated the hospital on Sunday, May 4. The attack left at least seven dead and 20 injured, including patients in critical condition and MSF caregivers. As a consequence, the county’s population of 100,000 people, who already had extremely limited access to health care, is cut off from all medical supplies.

The Commission alleges that the attacks have been carried out intentionally and constitute a clear violation of international humanitarian law (IHL) that could amount to a war crime. As hospitals enjoy special protection under the First Geneva Convention, they must not be targeted unless they contribute to military action and constitute a military objective. Additionally, willfully targeting and killing the civilian population, such as health care personnel and patients, constitutes a grave breach of IHL according to the Fourth Geneva Convention and Additional Protocol II thereto. Both acts constitute war crimes under the Rome Statute and can be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court.

Concerning the intentionality of the attack, UN Commissioner Barney Afako commented that the strike “does not seem to be an isolated incident—it occurred in the context of escalating ethnic profiling, unlawful detentions, and a hardening of positions within the political and military elite.” The South Sudan government had designated the county where the attack took place, inhabited by a majority of people belonging to the Nuer ethnic group, as “hostile” by ethnicity. On May 2, 2025, the head of the army, Paul Majok Nang, threatened that a failure to release several hijacked vessels in the region by fighters whom he associated with adversary Vice-President Riek Machar would result in punitive air strikes.

The bombing and its surrounding tensions, as the UN Commission warned, bring South Sudan closer to a return to full-scale civil war, as the factions disregard the Revitalized Peace Agreement concluded in 2018. The agreement was meant to unify the armed forces and resolve long-standing feuds between leading politicians, gathering their own paramilitary groups, and tensions between the two major ethnic groups in South Sudan, the Dinka and the Nuer.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 and descended into civil war when President Kiir dismissed Vice President Machar, accusing him of plotting a coup. The conflict, fought along lines between supporters of the two leaders, resulted in an estimated 400,000 deaths and 2.5 million people forced from their homes.

Currently, South Sudan is especially affected by the conflict in Sudan, which prompted more than 900,000 arrivals of refugees who face dire protection risks.