Last week’s fighting in Bentiu, the capital of South Sudan’s Unity state, seriously hampered humanitarians’ efforts to provide civilians with basic services like clean water and medical care.
The UN’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that they had to halt operations in the Bentiu UNMISS compound, where over 40,000 people are sheltering, after clashes erupted following an SPLA-In Opposition attack on the town.
“Renewed fighting around the [protection of civilians] site put on hold all activities, including the movement of heavy equipment for the improvement of the [civilian] sites,” OCHA said in its weekly humanitarian update, linked for download below.
OCHA said they had to stop movement of items to be used for improving water and sanitation, as well as items for improving shelters and other purposes.
Currently, the civilians in Bentiu have access to only 12.1 litres of water per day, below the international standard of 15. Many people still live in areas flooded with human waste as humanitarians attempt to install more latrines and drain the site.
“Response to the sanitation situation in Bentiu still slowed down by logistic constraints, as well as ongoing decommissioning of full latrines,” OCHA said, adding that humanitarians require safe access to areas around Bentiu to reach civilians in need.
The fighting forced medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to suspend their mobile clinics outside Bentiu’s UN base. MSF also closed its primary health clinics inside the base for two days during the clashes.
“It’s hard to provide meaningful medical care when you’re worrying about stray bullets and having to spend long periods of time in the bunker,” said Dr Erna Rijnierse, an MSF physician. “As a doctor, I feel helpless, very frustrated and even angry hearing the heavy pounding of shelling outside but being unable to reach those who are injured.”
“It’s simply too dangerous to go outside the camp due to heavy fighting,” she added.
Radio Tamazuj Photo: A woman pushes through the crowd after receiving her food rations in Bentiu UNMISS camp, 12 July 2014.