In South Sudan,
40,000 people are crowded into a flooded United Nations compound in
Bentiu. Living conditions are horrific but it is the only refuge they
have from the civil war that broke out last December.
Much
of the camp was flooded in July with the first heavy downpour of the
rainy season. Over one thousand makeshift shelters filled with sewage
contaminated floodwater.
People
used cooking pots to scoop up the water, tried to build mud dams across
doorways to prevent water entering, but to no avail.
With
few possibilities for drainage, current living conditions in the camp
are horrifying and an affront to human dignity. Most of the camp is now
knee-deep in sewage; thousands of people cannot lay down and therefore
sleep standing up with their infants in their arms.
More
than one third of residents here are children under five years old. We
have seen over 200 deaths in our hospital since May 2014, most of them
children. Although mortality rates have improved in the last few weeks,
we still see at least one child dying every day.
Many
deaths are directly attributable to the appalling living conditions,
the inadequate supply of clean drinking water and latrines contributing
to a constant burden of infection among children that live here.
A
devastating cycle sees infection cause weight loss, and weight loss in
turn increase vulnerability to infection. This cycle results in children
dying from severe acute malnutrition despite the availability of food.
Why don't people leave? They’re too scared to move out of this square kilometre of swamp, fenced in by an earth wall and moat.
Within
the barbed wire, troops from the United Nations Mission to South Sudan
(UNMISS) are managing, under extremely difficult and complex conditions,
to provide them with some level of protection.
Military police patrol the camp, guards are posted along the perimeter, a single guarded gate allows civilian entry and exit.
Outside
the camp, tension remains high and there is a heavy military presence.
Groups of armed men dominate every building and public place in the
town. Normal activities are at a standstill and there are few civilians
left. Garbage and looted goods are piled up everywhere. The threat of
further violence hangs in the air and the sound of low-level combat is
audible in the distance.
Civilians
entering and exiting the camp are subjected to violence and harassment
from armed men positioned a few meters outside the front gate. Women and
girls searching for firewood outside the camp are at particular risk of
sexual violence and MSF has treated several survivors already.
Not
only should perpetrators be held responsible for such acts of
aggression against civilians but UNMISS should ensure that civilians are
protected outside the perimeter fence too, either through special
patrols to protect those gathering firewood, or by installing a gate on
the east side of the camp where people say they feel less vulnerable to
abuse.
Understandably, camp
residents are angry and resentful. While not easy, drainage is possible
with a determined effort. Existing resources and UNMISS equipment onsite
such as excavators and diggers must be made available as a priority for
this purpose.
Furthermore, there
remains unused land in the zone and the immediate allocation of land
that is less susceptible to flooding would alleviate some of the current
suffering.
What’s clear is that
the current situation is untenable without improvements. People should
be safe from disease as well as safe from violence.
Ivan Gayton is Emergency Coordinator, Medecins Sans Frontieres
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