The protracted conflict in South Sudan has a great impact on the people who live in Mayendit and Leer counties, the local population is suffering from famine. Whole families have to flee to find essentials, including food and water.
South Sudan is experiencing the toughest times, according to the representatives of the international humanitarian organisations, there is no enough food, water or healthcare in the country. The specialists from Medecines sans frontiers have registered high levels of malnutrition, the most dangerous that is malnourished children can die without the effective care.
“The extreme level of violence has had a severe impact on people’s ability to meet basic needs such as safe drinking water, food supplies, shelter and healthcare,”
says Nicolas Peissel, the MSF project coordinator. According to him, Sudanese people have lost everything and struggle every day to survive: ‘no food and no water’ daily routine is just killing adults and children.
The background of the current nutrition crisis in South Sudan
In January, MSF teams of community health workers encountered very high levels of malnutrition amongst children in the areas of Dablual and Mirniyal in northern Mayendit country. They found that 25 percent of under-fives had global acute malnutrition and up to 8.1 percent of under-fives had severe acute malnutrition.
“This means that one-quarter of the children that we have consulted in our clinics are malnourished and almost a tenth are in a severe condition,”
says Peissel. These figures are extremely worrying.
In response, MSF has expanded its regular mobile clinics over the past week to include treatment for malnutrition.
