South Sudan: frontline hospital Kodok reopens

Kodok hospital is found in South Sudan. The hospital, on the front line between the warring parties is often caught up in crossfire during fighting. After closing the facility due to security concerns it is fully operational today, but tensions remains high.

Diane Yanise Akuch, an official at the hospital, was at a home nearby when fighting broke out near the hospital. “While I was hiding under the bed I was thinking a lot about the people who were dying during the shooting. I was thinking of the people who were living next to the hospital and the ones who were in the hospital,” she said.

Joseph Deng, a patient who was seeking treatment for a bullet wound at the time when the battle broke out, reported back to the same hospital with other patients who had managed to escape.

“They were not expecting me to come back walking on my leg because I was badly injured, like three-quarters of the patients who were in the hospital. When we came back, thank God, I was treated and my leg is better than before. We were well received and we found those who fled the hospital, those who were scared at the time of the attack, including doctors and workers, had come back too,” he said.

Doctor Dak Nyikago who is the hospital director, says the security has now improved and even the surgical team that had stop operations is back.

Health services in South Sudan have been overstretched. The lack of security has caused many health workers to flee because of reports of health workers being attacked.

Food, shelter and clothings remain to be the major setback to the people of South Sudan. The progressive violence that culminated in the region, over 10,000 people have been killed and 500,000 fleeing to other neighbouring countries.