Nearly five children are dying each day in the United Nations camp in Bentiu, the capital of South Sudan’s Unity state, where some 112,000 have taken shelter from the war, the UN’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
OCHA said in a report released Friday that 34 children under five years of age died from preventable diseases in the UN’s ‘Protection of Civilians’ site in the first week of September, the latest public statistics. This amounts to more than two children per 10,000 per day, above the emergency threshold.
The main causes of death are malaria, along with malnutrition, measles, pneumonia, and sepsis, OCHA said.
Last year a similar situation took place during the rainy season in Bentiu when 3 children were dying every day of preventable diseases. At that time, there were some 45,000 people living in the camp.
The return of emergency levels of child mortality in Bentiu this year comes after tens of thousands of civilians fled to the camp following a government offensive through southern Unity which began in May. Aid groups and the UN have been expanding the ‘Protection of Civilians’ site in hopes of improving conditions for living there this rainy season.
Related:
Child mortality rising in crowded Bentiu displaced persons camp (23 July 2015)
MSF: 3 children dying per day at Bentiu camp (19 June 2014)