MSF suspends aid to south Sudan region after attacks

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Medecins San Frontieres (MSF) has suspended medical care in a violent part of Sudan's war-torn south after three separate attacks on its staff, the aid group said in a statement on Saturday.

After decades of civil war south Sudan was one of the least developed parts of the world in 2005 when a north-south peace deal gave the region a semi-autonomous government and the right to vote on independence in January 2011.

But after decades of lawlessness a heavily armed population has refused to lay down its arms and tribal rivalries can be deadly with 2,500 killed and 350,000 driven from their homes last year alone in ethnic clashes.

"Following three separate security incidents in one of its remote healthcare clinics, international emergency medical aid organisation, MSF has been forced to suspend all activities in Gumuruk, Jonglei State," the group said.

The attacks included a violent robbery of four staff members, said MSF, which says it is the only international agency providing primary healthcare in the area.

"Attacks on our staff and clinics prevent us from providing essential medical aid. These incidents are totally unacceptable as they stop us from treating patients and put our staff at risk," said Rob Mulder, MSF head of mission in the south.

Jonglei was one of the worst affected states by tribal violence last year and a renegade south Sudan army has also clashed with government troops in the state this year.

"Unless the situation improves, it is impossible to evacuate those who need hospitalisation or surgery, including women with obstructed labour, children with cerebral malaria or severe anaemia who need blood transfusions," said Gbane Mahama, MSF medical coordinator in the south.

The World Food Programme estimates almost half the population in Sudan's south are short of food after a long dry season and as the seasonal rains begin to fall, flash flooding has left 10,000 people homeless in Jonglei state.

MSF said 160 malnourished children were being treated in its Gumuruk clinic with 20 severely malnourished children arriving each week.

Sudan's north-south civil war was Africa's longest. On-off conflict since 1955 -- mixing issues of ethnicity, ideology and oil -- claimed an estimated 2 million lives, and pitted Khartoum's Islamist government against mostly Christian and animist southern rebels.