A handout picture released by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) shows its hospital in Farandalla, in Sudan’s South Kordofan region, in this Nov. 11, 2011 file photo.

JUBA: Violence in South Sudan’s civil war including the execution of scores of hospital patients is the worst seen for decades and is an “affront to human dignity,” Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday.

“The conflict has at times seen horrific levels of violence, including against health care facilities,” said Raphael Gorgeu, South Sudan chief for Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF).

“Patients have been shot in their beds, and lifesaving medical facilities have been burned and effectively destroyed. These attacks have far-reaching consequences for hundreds of thousands of people who are cut off from medical services,” he said

“The violence carried out against the wounded and sick, and against those seeking shelter in hospitals and against medical facilities themselves, are not only violations of international laws and humanitarian principles, but an affront to human dignity,” MSF said in a report that examined the situation in six months.

“Throughout its 30-year history in the country, MSF has repeatedly witnessed violence against staff, patients, vehicles, compounds and health care facilities,” MSF said, noting that at least 58 people were killed in the grounds of four hospitals.

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