Severe malnutrition afflicts at least one in five children seeking refuge in South Sudan from Sudan, with over 90% of these immigrants not having consumed any food for days, as highlighted by the United Nations food agency.
The latest exodus, escalating over the past five months, counts nearly 300,000 people. The majority among them are South Sudanese, driven from their homeland plunged into civil war since 2013. Fleeing to neighboring countries, including Sudan, thousands have been forced to abandon their homes due to the on-going conflict.
“Witnessing families transition from one catastrophe to another, escaping peril in Sudan only to be met with despair in South Sudan, is truly heartbreaking,” articulated Mary-Ellen McGroarty, the Country Director of the World Food Program (WFP) in South Sudan.
Ever since mid-April, long-festering tensions in Sudan have dissolved into chaos. The military under Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan and the Rapid Support Force (RSF) paramilitary led by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo have been engaged in open warfare, exacerbating the situation further.
An urgent appeal for additional funding exceeding $120 million has been made by the WFP, in an effort to meet the escalating humanitarian requirements at the border. The advent of the rainy season is creating additional challenges with flooding exacerbating disease spread.
“The state of vulnerability faced by the current arrivals surpasses that experienced by the families who sought refuge during the early phase of the conflict,” is how the WFP stated the dire situation.
Since the turmoil erupted in Sudan in mid-April, UN estimates put the number of casualties at 5,000 with injuries suffered by over 12,000 others. A staggering 5.2 million people have been displaced from their homes, inclusive of more than 1 million seeking refuge in neighboring countries. South Sudan currently has half of its population, approximately 25 million, urgently needing humanitarian aid. Among them, around 6.3 million people are teetering on the brink of famine, as outlined by UN humanitarian officials.
