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Field NewsAn Escalating Health Crisis in South SudanAugust 9, 2012Since November 2011, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been operating emergency programs in South Sudan for tens of thousands of refugees who fled violence in Sudan's South Kordofan and Blue Nile States. MSF has field hospitals in five refugee camps in Unity and Upper Nile states in South Sudan (Batil, Doro, Jamam, Yida, and Gendrassa). However, resources in the camps are stretched extremely thin, and the humanitarian crisis is only worsening as more refugees arrive. Heavy rains have exacerbated the situation, flooding camps and leaving refugees—many of whom have already endured the journey from Sudan on foot—vulnerable to diseases like diarrhea, malaria, and cholera. All photographs South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki 
South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki Women and children wait in line to gather water at an MSF-run tap point in Doro camp. Supplying refugees with safe water has been a challenge since they started arriving. Heavy rains have further jeopardizing the supply of clean water and caused widespread flooding in the camps. # 
South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki A jerry can is filled with water at an MSF tap point in Doro camp. MSF is distributing basic survival items like jerry cans and other essentials in the refugee camps. # 
South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki Women return from the tap point in Doro with containers of water. Even with the tap points, supplies of safe water are dangerously low in the camps, and refugees are forced to wait in long lines for access to even small amounts. "We fill three jerry cans: one for breakfast, one for cleaning and one for the evening," says a refugee in Jamam camp. "Some people are old and can’t fetch water. Sometimes our neighbors can’t fetch water, so we share with them." # 
South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki Women enter the MSF hospital in Batil camp. Mortality rates in Batil have reached emergency levels, malnutrition rates are more than five times the emergency threshold, and cases of diarrhea and malaria are on the rise. # 
South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki Patients waiting for treatment crowd the benches in the overflowing waiting room at MSF's field hospital in Doro refugee camp. # 
South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki Live Roaldseth [center], an MSF health promotor, meets with a local sheikh in the market at Doro refugee camp. She is collecting data on weekly mortality rates in each of the sheikhs' communities in Doro. # 
South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki An MSF clinical officer speaks with a woman on her way to MSF’s outpatient department in Batil camp. # 
South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki MSF nurse Ghandi Bant escorts a patient with a possible case of appendicitis to a waiting ambulance in Doro camp. Violence forced many of the refugees in the camps to leave their homes in Sudan suddenly, and the difficult journey across the border exacerbated many pre-existing illnesses. # 
South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki The outpatient department in Batil refugee camp is crowded with families awaiting treatment. # 
South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki In Doro camp, a patient and her child take their turn to collect a prescription from the pharmacy at MSF's field hospital. # 
South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki Madina Habas sits with her twin 11-month-old sons Hussein and Hassan in the intensive therapeutic feeding center (ITFC) at MSF's field hospital in Doro camp. Both children are severely acutely malnourished. # 
South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki Young children are not the only ones at risk in the camps. At MSF's inpatient department in Doro camp, Jackson Hamad, 18 years old, is suffering from severe malaria and complications. # 
South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki Asha Jibril cares for her two-year-old daughter Aziza Haran in the ITFC at MSF's field hospital in Batil camp. A lack of nutritious food and clean water have left Aziza severely acutely malnourished and severely dehydrated. # 
South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki Sera Kwala [left] holds her one-year-old child Salima in the ITFC at MSF's field hospital in Batil camp. Salima is being treated for severe acute malnutrition. Refugees in Batil camp receive rations of rice, cereal, and oil every 15 days, but the lack of important nutrients in these foods put children like Salima at risk of malnutrition. # 
South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki Two-year-old Lastman Muthko was brought to the MSF field hospital in Doro camp earlier this morning by his mother Mariam [left]. He is suffering from severe malaria and has had difficulty breathing. # 
Sudanese refugees fleeing violence in their towns and villages continue to arrive in South Sudan only to be faced with a different kind of disaster in overcrowded refugee camps.
Tags: South Sudan, Refugees and IDPs, Sudan |
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