Médecins Sans Frontières urges humanitarian organizations to immediately increase their activities

2 September 2023 (PEN) – Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has urged humanitarian organisations to urgently step up their response to ease the hardships faced by those fleeing conflict in Sudan to Upper Nile State in South Sudan.

According to MSF, thousands of returnees tired of illness and exhausted by travel for about 72 hours by boat in the White Nile River have arrived at the Polokat transit centre in Malakal, northeast South Sudan.

MSF's head of mission in South Sudan, Luz Linares, said: "At our facilities in Malakal, there is an alarming rise in the number of cases of measles and malnutrition, especially among children. "The mortality rate at our facilities is so high, with patients arriving critically and so late that medical staff are sometimes unable to save them." "Humanitarian organizations should immediately scale up the medical and humanitarian response to people arriving from Sudan, from the moment they enter South Sudan until they are transferred to areas of their choice."

 MSF said that of the 245,000 people who have sought refuge in South Sudan since April, some 198,000 were renges in the far northeast of the country, according to the UN. About 50 percent of these people expressed their intention to remain within Upper Nile State, an area heavily affected by tribal conflict and lack of health care services.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) nursing supervisor in Polokat, Abai Dawa, said: "What I witnessed is really terrible, especially the living conditions. People don't have shelters, so, when it rains, the shelters are washed away by water. Some people die on boats. The food available is also very limited."

For three consecutive months since April, there has been a marked increase in admissions to the paediatric ward, with 184 patients admitted in July, compared to 114 in April. In addition, a significant 75 per cent increase in admissions to the inpatient therapeutic feeding centre for malnourished children was observed in July.

MSF has called for an expanded response to provide improved, coordinated and rapid assistance to provide basic necessities, especially food, as well as shelter, hygiene and sanitation, according to MSF.