Juba--Medics in South Sudan's war zone state of Unity described Thursday sheltering in swamp water with their patients to avoid intense gunfire as government troops retook a key rebel enclave.
South Sudan's army took the town of Leer from opposition forces, the information minister said late Wednesday, after an almost month-long assault marred by accusations of rampant human rights abuses.
Fighting broke out in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of attempting a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings across the country.
Leer, the birthplace of Machar, was ransacked by government forces in January 2014, with gunmen looting and torching the hospital there run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
MSF has since rebuilt the hospital, the only referral facility in opposition areas, but was forced to evacuate international staff two weeks ago as fighting approached, leaving some 200,000 people without access to medical care.
Most were reported to have fled the town ahead of the government assault.
"Contact with some of the more than 200 South Sudanese health workers employed by MSF remains sporadic as staff fled for their own safety into surrounding swamps along with the town's residents," MSF head of mission in South Sudan, Paul Critchley, told AFP.
He said he was "gravely concerned" about the fate of civilians in the area.
"The fate of critically ill patients they took with them from the hospital, including three prematurely born babies, remains unknown," he said.
The government assault that began late April is one of the heaviest offensives in the 17-month long civil war and has cut off over 650,000 people from aid, with gunmen raping, torching towns and looting relief supplies, according to the United Nations and aid agencies.
AFP
