More than 700,000 civilians have been displaced in the country since fighting broke out in mid-December, making this crisis one of the largest humanitarian challenges facing the world today. Many civilians have now fled their homes with little more than the clothes they were wearing.
Large groups of internally displaced people, or IDPs, are now settled in seven of the country’s ten states. Some have been taken in by relatives but most are housed in temporary shelters in and around United Nations camps, in churches and under trees. An unknown number of displaced families remain on the move.
The full extent of the situation is still unknown. Fighting continues between government soldiers and rebels in Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile states, so large swathes of the countryside remain inaccessible to humanitarian groups.
Humanitarian needs are acute among IDPs and host communities as scarce resources are stretched beyond capacity. Clean drinking water is in short supply, and the risk of diseases such as cholera has health officials worried. Food shortages are already widespread, and U.N. officials say food insecurity could affect over 7 million people in South Sudan in the months to come.
Race against time
ACT Alliance is scaling up its response across the country, despite logistical challenges presented by a tense security situation and poor infrastructure. South Sudan is a vast country with few roads, most of which are difficult to pass by truck even in dry weather. As the rainy season approaches, time is running out for humanitarian actors to get emergency relief equipment to remote communities before the rains render two-thirds of the country unreachable by road for several months.
ACT Alliance members are responding with non-food items such as plastic sheeting, water containers, cooking pots and utensils, personal hygiene items, sleeping mats and other essential items for displaced families.
We are delivering basic health services to IDPs living in informal settlements in the countryside, drilling wells and in some cases trucking safe drinking water to displaced groups and their host communities, as well as providing sanitation and hygiene materials to help prevent the spread of disease.
Our humanitarian mine action teams are educating returning IDPs in what to do if they find unexploded ordnance in their fields or communities, as well as beginning to work in the identification and removal of dangerous military artifacts from civilian areas.
ACT partners in South Sudan are predominately local churches and church-based organisations. They have access and knowledge essential to responding in a context such as this. ACT Alliance has issued an appeal for over US$9m to support the continuation of this life-saving emergency response. The appeal remains largely under-funded.