South Sudan, March 5 -- On March 1, an outbreak of intercommunal violence caused mass casualties in the town of Abiemnhom the northwest of South Sudan's Ruweng administrative area.

A Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) team supporting the Ministry of Health Hospital in the town of Abyei received 84 patients with gunshot wounds and other injuries, including women and children. Staff provided emergency surgical care in many cases. Tragically, eight patients lost their lives, including one pregnant woman.

While these clashes occurred in an area with a long history of intercommunal violence, the scale of the casualties from this incident is particularly alarming.

"It was really difficult to manage the mass casualty, but ...