On Friday, the international medical charity, Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF), called for urgent response in two of the busiest transit sites in South Sudan to prevent deadly disease outbreaks.
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The MSF warned that a humanitarian crisis is mounting in Bulukat and Renk sites in Upper Nile State as thousands of people who escaped the conflict in Sudan are desperately short of essentials including clean water, food, shelter, and healthcare.
"We are deeply concerned about the situation at the transit sites at a time when more people are expected to arrive due to intensified fighting in Sudan," said Zakaria Mwatia, MSF head of mission in South Sudan, in a statement issued in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, Wednesday evening.
Mwatia said given the growing impact of the Sudan crisis on people's humanitarian needs in South Sudan, there is a pressing need to expand the delivery of aid. "MSF urges international organizations and the authorities to strengthen humanitarian assistance to alleviate the suffering of those people affected by the crisis," he added.
The charity warned that overcrowded and unhygienic living conditions in the transit sites further increase the risk of disease outbreaks.
Since the conflict in Sudan broke out in mid-April 2023, more than half a million people have fled to South Sudan, of whom around 80 percent are South Sudanese returning to their country of origin, according to the United Nations.
The MSF said many have no clear destination and spend weeks or even months in and around the transit centers, struggling to survive with a scarcity of humanitarian aid.
According to the charity, Renk has two transit sites, both of which are dangerously overcrowded, with almost 30,000 people living in an area meant to host no more than 12,000 people.
The transit site at Bulukat, which is smaller, has consistently hosted around 5,000 people at any given time since July 2023, but people's living conditions are equally harsh.
Many families fled their homes with few or no belongings, and are now vulnerable to hunger, malnutrition, and diseases, exacerbated by inadequate shelter and the lack of clean water and sanitation facilities, the MSF said.
The charity said its teams have been running two mobile clinics in Renk since May 2023 and one in Bulukat since July to provide basic healthcare to returnees, refugees and host communities.
Mpumi Zokufa, MSF health promotion manager in Renk, said many people are living outside the transit sites because there is not enough space inside.
"Some are living outside in the open fields, so they don't have blankets or a place to sleep. The only things they use as covers are the mosquito nets provided by the MSF teams," Zakufa added.