International Committee of the Red Cross or ICRC evacuated by air twenty-nine people suffering gunshot wounds from inter-communal clashes in Western Lakes State for further medical care in Juba.
ICRC said in a statement that sixty-seven people were killed and nearly 100 wounded in the fighting between two sub-clans approximately 100 km north of Rumbek, according to local media reports.
‘Inter-communal violence continues to have devastating consequences in South Sudan’, said James Reynolds, ICRC’s Head of Delegation in South Sudan.
He said ‘the only medical facility in the area is a primary health care unit, which is not equipped to handle high numbers of trauma injuries such as gunshot wounds. Our only option was to evacuate patients by plane to Juba Military Hospital, where our surgical teams are taking care of them.’
The statement said the influx of patients has forced the ICRC to expand the number of beds from 58 to 78 in the ward so that patients can receive post-operative care.
‘We often see an increase in the number of casualties treated in the facilities we support during the dry season, but we are concerned about this sudden spike in violence,’ explained Reynolds.
He added that ‘people’s lives and dignity must be respected always, regardless of the reasons behind the fighting.’
Since the beginning of the year, ICRC has evacuated 327 patients by air to the two surgical facilities it supports in the country. Most of them were linked to inter-communal violence and cattle raids and included women and children.
Hundreds of homes have been looted over the past days, depriving families of their meager resources and forcing them to flee for fear of further violence.