Paul KeenanTrócaire condemns aerial bombardment
A Catholic hospital funded by Irish donors in the Nuba mountains region of South Sudan is back up and running having suffered aerial attacks over two days at the beginning of May.
The Catholic Mother of Mercy hospital, which is funded by donations via Trócaire, is the only functioning hospital for the area of South Kordofan and caters for some 150,000 people amid the conflict between rival forces first sparked in 2011, ostensibly over the disputed oil-rich Abyei region.
There are currently 1,000 patients at the facility.
Despite being located away from military installations and strategic interests, the hospital became the target of an aerial bombardment on May 1, and again the following day. Five of some 11 bombs dropped found their target, and though no fatalities were reported, staff and patients were injured as hospital buildings were blasted.
Hospital director Dr Tom Catena condemned the attack, and accused the military of attempting to deny civilians even the basics of survival in the area.
“They want us to go away,” he said. “They know the hospital’s important to people. They want to demoralise everybody.”
Courage
Dr Catena’s condemnation was echoed by Macram Max Gassis, Bishop emeritus of the Diocese of El Obeid, where Mother of Mercy is located. Long a voice for beleaguered South Sudanese, Bishop Gassis described the bombing as “an outrage against innocent civilians”.
“The sick have nothing to do with the conflict that has devastated the Nuba Mountains,” the bishop stressed. “It is a violation of the sacredness of all human life, which we must protect at all costs."
The bombing appears at this point to have been carried out by forces loyal to Sudanese President Omar al Bashir who recently began a fresh campaign against rebel forces of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) in South Kordofan and have made gains over recent weeks against their strongholds.
Trócaire has now confirmed to The Irish Catholic newspaper that the Mother of Mercy is operational again and continues to provide for those surviving in the Nuba mountains despite a very real risk of a repeat of the May 1-2 incidents.
Maurice McQuillan, Trócaire’s head of humanitarian programming, who has previously visited South Kordofan praised hospital staff for their “incredible courage and bravery in the name of saving lives” and added that it was the generosity of Irish people that “enables doctors and nurses to offer assistance to people who would otherwise have no access to medical care”.
Calling on the Irish Government to raise concerns with the Sudanese government over the hospital attack, McQuillan said “people in Ireland will share our horror at news that a hospital could be targeted for aerial attack."