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Sudanese
refugees wait in line to board a truck heading to
Batil
refugee camp July 15, 2012 in Jamam camp,
South
Sudan. (Getty)
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The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has expressed
concerns about the health situations of thousands of refugees living in camps
and settlements across South Sudan’s Upper Nile and Unity states.
At least 170,000 Sudanese refugees,
who fled fighting in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, are currently
camped in these two states, with nearly half of those in Upper Nile said to be
under the age of 11.
Adrian Edwards, a spokesperson for
UNHCR, in a statement, said the health situation in these refugees is alarming,
with reported increases in malaria, diarrhoea and respiratory tract infection
as a result of rain and cold.
Approximately 15 percent of children
under five, according to the agency, are reportedly severely malnourished in
Yusuf Batil camp, which hosts nearly 34,000 Sudanese from Blue Nile State.
Those affected, it says, are being treated under a special program aimed at
restoring their health.
The UNHCR and its partners this month,
reportedly launched an extensive health and hygiene outreach programme, which
particularly emphasises good basic hygiene.
“We are trying to impress upon
refugees the importance of fundamentals like hand-washing, collecting water in
clean buckets and jerry-cans and not defecating in the open. We are continuing
to build latrines in all five camps in an attempt to keep pace with new
arrivals,” said Edwards.
The health crisi in the camps has been
compounded by heavy
rains which have left standing water which may increase the prevalence of
waterborne disease.
The numbers of refugees, the agency
says, dramatically increased from 99,000 in April to the current 170,000;
prompting all agencies to struggle in efforts to maintaining adequate hygiene
and sanitation within the camps.
Deputy director of the division of
programme support and management of UNCHR, Paul Spiegel, said under-five
mortality rates across all the camps were above the emergency threshold, adding
that in some places, they were “four times” the normal rate and double the
emergency thresholds, with over four deaths reportedly occurring per 10,000 per
day.
Doctors
Without Borders reported in August that, the “mortality for the total
refugee population in Batil is substantially above the emergency threshold, and
mortality for children under five is more than double the emergency threshold.“
Also on the rise, he noted, was acute
malnutrition and measles, especially among children under-five.
“There were numerous challenges for
everyone,” he said, adding that the remote locations of these camps, lack of basic
services for both the population in these areas and the refugee, plus the
absence of passable roads makes it practically challenging to assist the
refugees.
Operations manager for East and Horn
of Africa, Chad and Sudan, bureau for Africa of UNHCR, Oscar Mundia, in the
statement also lauded local cooperation between the agency and local
non-governmental organisations in South Sudan.
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