By Kei Emmanuel Duku
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has closed its hospital in Ulang, Upper Nile State, and withdrew support to 13 primary healthcare facilities in the county.
The decision followed a violent incident on April 14, 2025 where armed individuals forced their way into the facility, threatening staff and patients before systematically looting and destroying property.
The attack left the hospital’s infrastructure in ruins and its critical medical supplies completely depleted.
“They took everything: medical equipment, laptops, patients’ beds and mattresses from the wards, and approximately nine months’ worth of medical supplies, including two plane loads of surgical kits and drugs delivered just the week before the incident,” said Zakaria Mwatia, MSF Head of Mission for South Sudan. “Whatever they could not carry, they destroyed.”
Mwatia added that medicines worth €135,000, adequate to sustain the hospital for months and treat thousands of patients, were stolen.
The sheer scale of the destruction is immense, rendering the hospital infrastructure, an investment of millions of euros, completely unusable.
The closure of the Ulang hospital is a severe blow to the region’s healthcare system.
This facility served as a vital hub, providing secondary healthcare services and acting as a central point for medical supplies, referrals, and technical support for 13 primary health facilities across the state.
Now, a vast area spanning over 200 kilometres, from the Ethiopian border to Malakal, is left without a single secondary healthcare facility, significantly increasing pressure on already stretched resources in places like Malakal.
Mwatia highlighted that this recent attack on a health facility is not an isolated incident. MSF has faced escalating security challenges in the area, including a previous attack in January where two clearly marked MSF boats were shot at.
Less than a month after the Ulang looting, another MSF hospital in Old Fangak was bombed, forcing the organization to cease operations and compromise the safety of its aid workers.
“The security situation in the area remains volatile, with ongoing clashes in neighboring regions,” Mwatia stated. “MSF prioritizes the safety of its staff and patients and the integrity of our services, but the current environment makes it impossible to ensure either.”
He stressed that continued attacks on health workers will have adverse impacts on the health of local communities, appealing for the protection of patients, healthcare workers, and medical facilities at all times.
Since its establishment by MSF in 2018, the Ulang Health Centre has provided life-saving services to over 150,000 patients, with more than 139,730 receiving outpatient services and 19,350 admitted.
Between 2018 and 2025, MSF also treated 32,966 malaria cases, assisted 2,685 mothers with safe deliveries, and managed vital referral services and numerous emergencies and disease outbreaks by boat.
Despite the closure of the majority of its health facilities in the region, MSF’s Head of Mission stated that a mobile emergency team is currently assessing needs and preparing to provide short-term healthcare services along the Sobat Corridor. This will depend on security conditions on the ground. MSF will continue to operate its other projects in Upper Nile State, including those in Malakal and Renk Counties.