Posts tagged sudan

An Escalating Health Crisis in South Sudan

Above: Asha Jibril cares for her two-year-old daughter Aziza Haran in the ITFC at MSF’s field hospital in Batil camp. A lack of nutritious food and clean water have left Aziza severely acutely malnourished and severely dehydrated.

Since November 2011, MSF has been operating emergency programs in South Sudan for tens of thousands of refugees who fled violence in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile States. MSF has field hospitals in five refugee camps in Unity and Upper Nile states in South Sudan (Batil, Doro, Jamam, Yida, and Gendrassa). However, resources in the camps are stretched extremely thin, and the humanitarian crisis is only worsening as more refugees arrive. Heavy rains have exacerbated the situation, flooding camps and leaving refugees—many of whom have already endured the journey from Sudan on foot—vulnerable to diseases like diarrhea, malaria, and cholera.

Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki

An Escalating Health Crisis in South Sudan

Above: Two-year-old Lastman Muthko was brought to the MSF field hospital in Doro camp earlier this morning by his mother Mariam [left]. He is suffering from severe malaria and has had difficulty breathing.

Since November 2011, MSF has been operating emergency programs in South Sudan for tens of thousands of refugees who fled violence in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile States. MSF has field hospitals in five refugee camps in Unity and Upper Nile states in South Sudan (Batil, Doro, Jamam, Yida, and Gendrassa). However, resources in the camps are stretched extremely thin, and the humanitarian crisis is only worsening as more refugees arrive. Heavy rains have exacerbated the situation, flooding camps and leaving refugees—many of whom have already endured the journey from Sudan on foot—vulnerable to diseases like diarrhea, malaria, and cholera.

Photo:South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki

An Escalating Health Crisis in South Sudan

Since November 2011, MSF has been operating emergency programs in South Sudan for tens of thousands of refugees who fled violence in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile States. MSF has field hospitals in five refugee camps in Unity and Upper Nile states in South Sudan (Batil, Doro, Jamam, Yida, and Gendrassa). However, resources in the camps are stretched extremely thin, and the humanitarian crisis is only worsening as more refugees arrive. Heavy rains have exacerbated the situation, flooding camps and leaving refugees—many of whom have already endured the journey from Sudan on foot—vulnerable to diseases like diarrhea, malaria, and cholera.

Photo: An MSF clinical officer speaks with a woman on her way to MSF’s outpatient department in Batil camp.
South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki

If you missed our Doctors Without Borders South Sudan webcast last night, the full recording is here.

Learn more about the situation in South Sudan.

Hear the perspective of our staff who have been working in the midst of the refugee crisis in South Sudan during our live webcast tomorrow at 8p ET.

Register here.

“This Emergency is Huge—I’ve Never Seen Anything Like It”

“Families have lost and are losing mothers, fathers, and children. The coping mechanisms of this population have been destroyed. People who could normally manage just simply can’t. Their reserves have been eroded piece by piece during the long and grueling journey that has brought them to Batil camp. You see their faces, and it’s not that there is no emotion—they are feeling something inside, but they are just shutting down. It’s something that I can’t really describe. We have to actively seek out and support these vulnerable families and help them with each step.”

-Helen Ottens-Patterson, from the United Kingdom, is a nurse and MSF medical coordinator in Upper Nile State’s Maban County, South Sudan. Here, MSF is the largest provider of emergency medical care for more than 110,000 refugees that have fled fighting in Sudan’s Blue Nile state. In Batil refugee camp, one of four camps in the county, a recent survey carried out by MSF showed that the mortality rate for children under five years old was more than double the emergency threshold.

Here, Helen shares her experience providing care for this particularly vulnerable group of people.

Photo:Helen Ottens-Patterson and Mohammed, who is now receiving intensive treatment for malnutrition at an MSF facility.
South Sudan 2012 © Olga Overbeek/MSF

Situation Critical: An MSF Frontline Report from the Unfolding Refugee Crisis in South Sudan

Join us on Wednesday at 8pm ET for a live webcast discussion on the refugee crisis in South Sudan, featuring recently returned Doctors Without Borders field staff.

Reblog to help us raise awareness of the plight of Sudanese refugees living in appalling conditions in camps in South Sudan. They are falling ill and dying at rates alarmingly above accepted international standards for emergencies.

Join us next week for a live webcast discussion on the refugee crisis in South Sudan, featuring recently returned emergency field staff. Wednesday, August 29, 8p ET. Register here.

Sudanese Refugees Battle To Endure Disease and Desperation in Yida

A two-year-old who had become extremely malnourished due to severe diarrhea is fed through a tube at MSF’s hospital in Yida. MSF is the primary medical provider in Yida (as well as in the camps in Upper Nile State). The organization has doubled the number of beds it has available in Yida to treat increasing numbers of seriously ill patients, and additional staff are also being sent to the area.

Over the past eight months, roughly 60,000 refugees from Sudan’s South Kordofan State have come to Yida, in South Sudan’s Unity State seeking sanctuary. MSF has been working in the camp for that entire period, but teams have seen conditions deteriorate badly of late, with profound medical consequences for the refugees themselves.

Having fled aerial bombardments and longstanding deprivation, they found in Yida a sprawling camp short on resources and services and offering living conditions that have worsened dramatically with the onset of the rainy season. Photographer John Stanmeyer of VII Photo is in Yida this week, and captured the following images of people in dire need of assistance, enduring circumstances that are already claiming, according to epidemiological data, the lives of more than five children each day. “The number of children dying in Yida is appalling,” said André Heller Pérache, MSF head of mission in South Sudan, earlier this month.

Photo: South Sudan 2012 © John Stanmyer/VII

Sudanese Refugees Battle To Endure Disease and Desperation in Yida

An aerial views of the Yida camps, where some 60,000 Sudanese refugees are seeking sanctuary just 12 miles inside the borders of South Sudan, and where mortality rates for children and adults alike are well above emergency thresholds.

Having fled aerial bombardments and longstanding deprivation, they found in Yida a sprawling camp short on resources and services and offering living conditions that have worsened dramatically with the onset of the rainy season. Photographer John Stanmeyer of VII Photo is in Yida this week, and captured the following images of people in dire need of assistance, enduring circumstances that are already claiming, according to epidemiological data, the lives of more than five children each day. “The number of children dying in Yida is appalling,” said André Heller Pérache, MSF head of mission in South Sudan, earlier this month.

Photo: South Sudan 2012 © John Stanmyer/VII

An Escalating Health Crisis in South Sudan

Women and children wait in line to gather water at an MSF-run tap point in Doro camp. Supplying refugees with safe water has been a challenge since they started arriving. Heavy rains have further jeopardizing the supply of clean water and caused widespread flooding in the camps.

Since November 2011, MSF has been operating emergency programs in South Sudan for tens of thousands of refugees who fled violence in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile States. MSF has field hospitals in five refugee camps in Unity and Upper Nile states in South Sudan (Batil, Doro, Jamam, Yida, and Gendrassa). However, resources in the camps are stretched extremely thin, and the humanitarian crisis is only worsening as more refugees arrive. Heavy rains have exacerbated the situation, flooding camps and leaving refugees—many of whom have already endured the journey from Sudan on foot—vulnerable to diseases like diarrhea, malaria, and cholera.

Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki

An Escalating Health Crisis in South Sudan

MSF nurse Ghandi Bant escorts a patient with a possible case of appendicitis to a waiting ambulance in Doro camp. Violence forced many of the refugees in the camps to leave their homes in Sudan suddenly, and the difficult journey across the border exacerbated many pre-existing illnesses.

Since November 2011, MSF has been operating emergency programs in South Sudan for tens of thousands of refugees who fled violence in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile States. MSF has field hospitals in five refugee camps in Unity and Upper Nile states in South Sudan (Batil, Doro, Jamam, Yida, and Gendrassa). However, resources in the camps are stretched extremely thin, and the humanitarian crisis is only worsening as more refugees arrive. Heavy rains have exacerbated the situation, flooding camps and leaving refugees—many of whom have already endured the journey from Sudan on foot—vulnerable to diseases like diarrhea, malaria, and cholera.

Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki