27 conflict-displaced people including children and elderly died at Rome Camp in Akoka County in Upper Nile, a camp leader said Sunday.

James Mansour Dau told Radio Tamazuj that the deaths in August and September are due to shortages of food and medicine.

He said there has been a spread of infections including kala-azar disease, with 13 kala-azar patients currently at Rome Hospital.

Dau said there are about 11,000 displaced people in Rome Camp.

He said IDPs in Akoka have run out of food after food rations were last distributed on 28 May.

“Poor roads connecting Akoka, Malakal and Melut Counties have worsened the humanitarian conditions of the IDPs,” he said. 

Dau called on the government and organizations to provide aid for the needy people.

On 1 September, the Akoka County Commissioner told Radio Tamazuj that there have been 35 total cases of kala-azar outbreak with four deaths.

Kala-azar disease is transmitted by the bite of the sand fly and is characterized by irregular bouts of fever, weight loss, swelling of the spleen and liver, and anaemia.  It can kill within two weeks if not treated.

File photo: A woman and her children in Kodok, Upper Nile, October 2013. They were part of a group of about 1400 Nuba refugees who came to the area from Kau Nyaro in neighboring Sudan before the latest crisis started in South Sudan (Radio Tamazuj)

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