Warrap State officials are warning of malnutrition and possible outbreaks of infectious diseases among the thousands of people who fled to the state.
The United Nations estimates 4,200 people in the state have been displaced from neighbouring Unity State, while local officials put the number somewhat higher.
State Health Minister Paul Dhel Gum said 780 of them are children, many of whom are arriving at camps without their parents. There have been 24 ‘severe malnutrition’ cases so far and at least two children have died since arriving at one of the locations.
“There was no water for them to drink, there was no food given to the child and the child become severely malnourished,” Gum said. “The team on the ground could not manage to rescue the life of the child.”
Twic County Commissioner Biar Biar Riing Madut noted that the state government has already identified three locations to accommodate the refugees. At Aweng there are 4,875 people, at Turalei there are 1,865, and at Manaweng there are 3,265, said the county official.
He noted that the refugees are living in dire conditions without food and medicine. But he said the security situation is calm and stable, noting that both Dinka and Nuer people travelled together and were now encamped peacefully side by side.
Angelina Gatkuoth, a refugee at Manaweng, explained “We fled from Bentiu town to Warrap on foot. I am a mother of three little children they are now suffering from fatigue without food and water. The whereabouts of my husband are unknown since the outbreak of war in Bentiu.”
Inadequate response
Minister of Health Paul Dhel Gum says he appreciates assistance sent by the national ministers of health and humanitarian affairs but cautions that “compared to the need of the IDPs on the ground, it is not much.”
He appealed to the government and organizations to accelerate their efforts saying, “This is an abnormal situation and when an abnormal situation occurs we need a quick intervention.”
Hospitals and health centers in Warrap have also treated 94 soldiers wounded in fighting in neighboring Unity State. Gum said the state’s hospitals are overcrowded and many of the wounded fighters have now been released or transferred to hospitals in Wau.
He said 30 soldiers are still receiving treatment in Kwajok, including 12 fighters who arrived this morning. An additional 55 soldiers who arrived yesterday were immediately transferred to Wau.
“The arrival may scale down, may not be as high as it used to be before, because my ministry has dispatched a huge quantity of medicines” to the army headquarters in Unity State, he said.
Photo: Women displaced by violence in Unity State at a new site for displaced people in Turalei in northern Warrap State, 12 January 2014 (Radio Tamazuj)