Jonglei of South Sudan: Who burned down houses and blocked hospitals? | | Story

Juba, South Sudan – A few days before Lankien was resurrected, doctors at the local hospital rushed to discharge patients. Some were pregnant women. Others were receiving gunshot wounds. On the evening of February 3, just a few hours after the last patient had been operated on, a bomb hit the vacant lot, ripping through a ravine through his warehouse.

Fighting was taking place in the surrounding areas as the South Sudanese army advanced with a war aimed at recapturing areas captured by opposition forces. As the army moved eastward through Jonglei district, they captured town after town, pushing the opposition to the Ethiopian border.

After the bombings, residents of the city said they were forced to flee to the surrounding areas on the morning of February 7 when a mudslide engulfed the city. Some eventually came back and described the great destruction.

The hospital had been looted and burned. Its cold storage facility, used to store vaccines, was set on fire. Cars were sprayed with bullets and parts were stripped. The solar water system had been decommissioned. The local market turned into twisted metal, while the houses outside looked like they had been burned.

“Everything that could help people’s lives was destroyed on purpose,” said Emmerson Gono, the deputy head of the mission of Doctors Without Borders, known for its French foundation MSF, who visited Lankien in April, adding that this was his assessment based on what he saw.

Fight against Jonglei

Since the start of what officials call “Operation Enduring Peace,” satellite images analyzed by the Center for Information Resilience (CIR), including verified videos, photos and eyewitness accounts, show widespread destruction in the Jonglei region that has been the center of opposition groups.

Both the military and the opposition have been accused of destroying villages and attacking civilians in recent months. In this region of Jonglei, home to the Nuer ethnic group that officials often oppose the government, more than a dozen people who spoke to Al Jazeera said they believed the military was responsible for the destruction that experts say has pushed thousands of people to the brink of starvation.

In most of the 23 incidents CIR recorded in late January and February, civilian buildings, including homes, hospitals and markets, appear to have been burned and looted. The CIR said the attack “is expected to be widespread and possibly part of what it described as a deliberate war strategy”.

“Using satellite images, we were able to see how armed groups from west to east follow a pattern of arson and looting,” said CIR researcher Kiria Borak, stressing that satellite images alone cannot determine intent or responsibility.

Some officials and humanitarians said that what happened in Jonglei was a result of clashes between government forces and opposition groups. However, residents told Al Jazeera that opposition fighters were not present when their villages were attacked. Those accounts could not be independently verified due to restricted access to the area.

Officials did not respond to a request for comment on the specific incidents described in the report. In previous statements, officials said military operations are carried out in self-defense and that civilians are not targeted intentionally.

Political events

Violence has escalated since 2025, when opposition leader and vice president Riek Machar was arrested on charges of violating the constitution, which he denies. Machar and President Salva Kiir were once on opposing sides of the 2013-2018 civil war, which killed thousands of people before a peace deal that brought them into a fragile coalition government.

The implementation of the agreement has stalled amid delays in uniting the armed forces into a national army and repeated postponements of elections.

After Machar’s arrest, the government launched a campaign of aerial bombardment to combat the insurgency in the countryside. Machar’s political party declared that the peace deal was over and began attacking the armed forces.

Between December and January, opposition fighters, with the help of armed youths, seized several military units in Jonglei, prompting the government to declare a coup d’état on January 28.

The head of the army then Paul Nang ordered soldiers, from the national army, intelligence units, police and allied forces, according to UN investigators, to retake the area occupied by the opposition groups.

Analysts say the involvement of coalition forces working alongside legitimate groups has created a clear crisis of responsibility.

‘burning houses’

Five people who fled Lankien told Al Jazeera that they saw what was happening on February 7.

They said that the pro-government forces reached the edge of the town after fighting in a nearby village. Early in the morning, mortar fire raged through the town, and the underground army arrived in armored vehicles.

Gai Ket, 32, said he was cutting wood when the explosion started. He ran back to town to find his wife and children.

“The first thing I saw was smoke. The SSPDF was burning a house,” he said, referring to the national army.

When he got to his house, he found his wife dead, with a big wound on her chest. Bodies were scattered all around. “Everything was gone,” he said.

Another resident, Puoch Duol, said he came back at night to look for his grandfather who was too weak to escape. He said he found his body among several others near the ruins of the burnt buildings.

Satellite images reviewed by CIR show extensive damage in Lankien between February 7 and 9. On February 7, the army announced that it was in control of the town.

MSF said government forces were controlling Lankien in the days after the attack but did not claim responsibility for the destruction. It added that the government is the only party to the conflict that can launch aerial bombardments.

Government-appointed officials told Al Jazeera that the rebels looted the town on their way out. Representatives of the opposition parties oppose this, saying that their soldiers were not there at the time. No account can be independently verified.

An example of destruction

Residents described similar destruction in towns and villages stretching from the Nile River to the Ethiopian border. Armed men arrive in armored vehicles, often as opposition groups say they have left, according to residents.

Houses and markets were burned, while hospitals and medical supplies were looted. The common people took refuge in the swamps and forests, while those too weak to escape were killed or disappeared.

The CIR showed television footage from Pathai showing militants walking between burning buildings towards the town’s western entrance road. The identities of those in the video could not be personally verified.

Mr. Jany, an employee of Walgak town, described the attack on February 5.

He said: “We could see smoke everywhere.

Satellite images show extensive damage to Walgak between February 3 and 7, shortly after the town changed hands.

Humanitarians who monitored the situation in the area reported that many villages near Walgak were burned or destroyed immediately. These accounts could not be independently verified due to limitations and ongoing insecurity.

Remote sensing data shows clusters of fire events across the region at the same time. However, satellite images alone cannot determine the cause or cause of a fire.

Control your speech and manners

Since the start of the war, government officials have raised concerns about the safety of civilians.

A video circulated on social media shows Johnson Olony, the deputy army chief who is also the commander of Agwelek’s army, telling soldiers not to spare lives or property in the operation. The government later said that the statement did not reflect government policy, and Olony apologized.

In another video, an official identified as Wal Nyak is seen threatening violence against those who oppose them. “Whether you are a woman or a girl, we will kill you all… We don’t want Riek Machar supporters here,” he says.

The accuracy and completeness of the images cannot be independently verified.

Human resources

Aid agencies say the effects of the devastation reported in the region are severe and could last for months or more.

At least 28 hospitals in Jonglei were damaged or looted this year, according to the UN. Seventy percent no longer work.

The Integrated Phase Classification (IPC), a United Nations research organization, says that there is a danger of famine in several areas, while more than 70,000 people are already facing the worst problem of hunger.

Nicholas Kerandi of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said the crisis in food and public health “is likely to continue for the rest of the year and beyond”.

Others say the alleged atrocities in Jonglei have brought the already fractured country of South Sudan to the brink of crisis.

“Clans don’t trust each other, citizens don’t trust the government, and the government doesn’t trust its citizens,” Ter Manyang Gatwech, a human rights activist in Jonglei, told Al Jazeera.

“Unless there is a miracle, South Sudan will break up,” he said.