SOUTH SUDAN'S BIRTH PAINS
One year on from the country's independence, South Sudan is facing a litany of challenges; none bigger than the health situation of those in the fledgling state's refugee camps. UNHCR has now placed the health crises afflicting camp residents as their highest priority. Torrential rains, leading to serious flooding, have made a number of roads impassable, further hindering aid agencies ability to provide for those living in the camps. Outbreaks of cases of diarrhoea have risen dramatically, and the likelihood of further disease outbreaks is a very real fear.
People collect water from various wells dug by refugees in Jammam camp. With waiting times at official camp water stations of up to six hours, camp dwellers have started to dig for new water sources.
In the early morning a dog watches over a child sleeping on a blanket in Doro refugee camp. With so many people arriving at the camp the newly arrived don’t get immediate access to tents or even tarpaulins. As a result they sleep in the open.
More than 500,000 people have fled from Sudan into South Sudan as a result of the ongoing conflict between the two states.
Two elderly men playing a game, possibly Mancala, on the dusty ground in Doro refugee camp.
A family outside their tent in Jammam refugee camp. The children eat a meal, the first and only one of the day. They eat it in the evening so the children do not go to bed hungry.
A young girl, a fly crawling over her face, squats on the ground inside a tent in Jammam refugee camp. She has lived at the camp for nearly six months and she is beginning to show signs of malnutrition.
Relatives and friends of a man stabbed to death with a spear, mourn as they stand beside his bloodied corpse in Doro refugee camp. The death was the result of an inter-tribal conflict, one of many assaults and murders occuring in the refugee camps of South Sudan.
The wife and daughter of a man stabbed to death with a spear, cry as they stand beside his bloodied corpse in Doro refugee camp. The death was the result of an inter-tribal conflict, one of many assaults and murders occuring in the refugee camps of South Sudan.
The wife of a man stabbed to death with a spear, cries beside his bloodied corpse in Doro refugee camp. The death was the result of an inter-tribal conflict, one of many assaults and murders occuring in the refugee camps of South Sudan.
A malnourished donkey stands in the limited shade of one of the few trees in Jammam refugee camp.
A woman brews tea in the doorway of her family’s flimsy shelter in the Jammam refugee camp.
A crowd of women and children gathered around Jammam refugee camp’s water source. Water is limited in the camp with waiting times to fill up at the official water point of up to six hours.
An aerial view of Doro refugee camp that houses some 50,000 people.
A woman arrives at Jammam refugee camp, loaded down with as much as she could carry when she fled her home.
Men stack sacks of lentils in a World Food Programme (WFP) food distribution point in the Jammam refugee camp.
Sunday mass held beneath a huge baobab tree in Doro refugee camp.
Sunday mass held beneath a huge baobab tree in Doro refugee camp.
Toma Nimiir sits with her husband and children in their makeshift shelter in the Jammam refugee camp. She recently gave birth to her fifth child, Dhadhani, in the camp. The family were forced to flee their home, a seven day walk away in Sudan, after the area they lived in was bombed with increasing fury.
People collect water from various wells dug by refugees in Jammam camp. With waiting times at official camp water stations of up to six hours, camp dwellers have started to dig for new water sources.
A stricken aeroplane lies, where it crash-landed, at the end of the Maban airstrip.
A woman hands up an empty US AID container of water from a well dug in Jammam refugee camp. With waiting times at the official water points taking up to six hours camp dwellers have taken to digging their own wells all over the camp.
A child sleeps on the shoulder of an older girl in the Jammam refugee camp.
A woman carries four large plastic water containers hung over her shoulders on a yoke in the Jammam refugee camp. Water is limited in the camp with waiting times to fill up at the camp’s official water source of up to six hours.
A group of boys play football in the Doro refugee camp. More than 500,000 people have fled from Sudan into South Sudan as a result of the ongoing conflict between the two states.
A young girl looks over Doro refugee camp where around 60% of the camp’s population are children.