After a four-year closure due to insecurity, five primary and high schools in South Sudan’s Fashoda state reopened their classroom doors, a local official said.

The Head of the Border and Peaceful Coexistence Commission in Fashoda, Martin Ayang Anei, told Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday that the five schools were reopened on 10 July with support from the international relief organization World Vision.

Anei further said schools in Mano, Okurwa, Dithuok and Urok are now operational and the international humanitarian organization World Vision will pay the teachers’ salaries.

Separately, Fashoda State Minister of Information Uthor Okeich said that the Kodok Hospital, the main hospital in the state, is running short of health personnel and medical supplies.

He further said the hospital receives more than 100 patients on a daily basis yet there are only two medical assistants available to provide health services.

The world’s youngest nation has been embroiled in more than four years of conflict that has taken a devastating toll on the people.