ReliefWeb

South Sudan is producing more refugees than any other African nation, but it is also hosting tens of thousands of people who have fled fighting in Sudan.

By Simon Crittle

BUNJ, South Sudan, 22 March 2018 – Two-year-old Farris Sebit is suffering from severe malnutrition. The boy was already emaciated when his family fled fighting in Sudan’s Blue Nile state. But his condition rapidly deteriorated during the three days his mother carried him through the bush and across the border into South Sudan.

“It was a very difficult journey,” says the boy’s mother, Marium. “The road was not safe. We met people from other tribes. There was no food. We drank stagnant water along the way.”

While his older siblings survived by eating sap from acacia trees, Farris refused to eat the tasteless gum. By the time they reached the refugee camp, he was sick with diarrhea and his condition was critical.

His story is like thousands of others here in the camp, in the remote county of Maban, in the north of South Sudan. While civil war-ravaged South Sudan now produces more refugees than any other African nation, the fact that refugees from Sudan, to the north, are also pouring into the world’s youngest country is little known.

Some 58,000 people live in Doro camp, which is made up of ramshackle shelters that stretch for kilometers. The twisting streets are filled with barefoot children and wandering pigs. Women earn a little money weaving mats made from palm tree fronds. But mostly the people remain idle, waiting for the midday heat to pass.

The refugees, from tribes including Uduk, Mayak, Jumjum and Balila, are fleeing a five-year-old conflict between rebels and the Sudanese government, in Sudan’s southeast, which is often compared to the war in Darfur, in Sudan’s west.

Almost 150,000 people now live in the five Maban camps, which are a safe distance from the fighting. But the refugees are putting enormous pressure on the host community and face their own ethnic tensions and daunting humanitarian challenges.

In May 2017, fierce fighting broke out among the tribes inhabiting the camps, leaving dozens dead and much of the temporary infrastructure, built by the United Nations, burned and looted.

As a result, thousands of families were relocated by the UN, and the camps are now divided along tribal lines. While tensions have eased, alarming levels of disease and hunger haunt the refugee population.

Malnutrition among children is a serious concern. A 2015 food security survey of the camps and surrounding towns and villages found the majority of refugees in Maban were dependent on aid as their main source of food.

In contrast, crops represented the main food source for most host community members. More than 80 percent of both refugees and hosts didn’t have enough food to eat, while most host families had less than one week of food in storage.

In early 2017, South Sudan experienced the world’s first famine in six years. Across the country, an estimated 1.1 million children are now considered to be “acutely malnourished,” including close to 280,000 who suffer from “severe acute malnutrition,” a potentially life-threatening condition. In addition, hyperinflation has sent food prices sky-high.

“Too many children are going hungry in South Sudan. More than one in five of those struggling to feed themselves is a child under 5 years of age,” said Mahimbo Mdoe, UNICEF’s representative in South Sudan. “This has created a malnutrition crisis that is putting many lives at risk.”

In response to the crisis, UNICEF has deployed teams across the country to provide treatment for severe acute malnutrition, as well as promotion and support of infant and young child feeding practices and micronutrient supplementation. Almost 1 million pregnant and lactating women have received counseling for appropriate feeding.

In Maban, UNICEF has mobilized in the camps and partnered with several aid organizations to deliver life-saving interventions. In Doro camp, for example, UNICEF supplies commodities to the International Medical Corps (IMC), which runs a network of outpatient therapeutic programs and conducts blank feeding interventions, which are supported by WFP.

Mothers are encouraged to bring children to the outpatient facilities, where they are weighed, measured and supplied with therapeutic food rations. “If a child is not gaining weight, we will counsel the mother to know what happened exactly,” says IMC officer Rose Jelly. “Then we assign community health promoters to do home visits.”

Children found to be both malnourished and suffering from medical complications such as diarrhea or malaria are referred to a stabilization centre at Bunj hospital.

In the case of Farris, his mother brought him to a clinic shortly after they arrived from the north. The boy was diagnosed as having severe acute malnutrition but his appetite was good, Marium, his mother, was given a week’s supply of Plumpy’Nut, a highly nutritious paste made from peanuts. A week after his first visit, Farris had gained weight and now weighs 9.5 kilograms.

Because of the support the family is receiving, Farris is likely to survive his scrape with malnutrition. In 2017, aid workers reported fewer cases of malnutrition in the camps and host communities than the previous year.

However, the situation remains volatile, and agencies face ongoing challenges. During the inter-tribal fighting last year, one of the IMC outpatient facility was looted. All the medical supplies and equipment were taken. The facility is currently closed, since all that remains is an empty shell.

Back at his temporary shelter in the refugee camp, Farris gulps down a packet of Plumpy’Nut, which carries the logo of the donor agency, USAID.

The tiny shelter, which has walls made from dry reeds and a roof made of a plastic sheet, is home to Farris, his mother and four other siblings. On one wall, a prayer, written in Arabic, asks God to protect them.

Support for the therapeutic feeding program in Maban comes from USAID/Food for Peace.