Human Wrongs Watch
Severe water shortages in refugee camps close to the Sudanese border have contributed to a rise in mortality and malnutrition rates to alarming levels, in what is a major humanitarian crisis, says a new report.
©Tom Stoddart / Getty Images / ICRC / ss-e-00067
“Fleeing armed conflict, many thousands of Sudanese refugees from Blue Nile state in Sudan have flooded into South Sudan’s Maban county, Upper Nile state, since September 2011. Their numbers have been increasing since May. Living in remote areas at home, most arrive exhausted after an arduous journey on foot that can last weeks,” says the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
“They have found shelter in isolated camps whose stretched resources are often insufficient to cover peoples’ basic needs,” it adds.
“The humanitarian situation in Yusuf Batil camp in particular is extremely worrying. Conditions are dire and survival remains a struggle. Owing to the lack of clean water, people are drinking contaminated surface water. Children are especially vulnerable to death from water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea,” said Melker Mabeck, head of the ICRC delegation in South Sudan.
“The ICRC is tackling this emergency by expanding the camp’s water infrastructure and distributing jerrycans and buckets so people are better able to collect and store water.”
