Geneva, Switzerland — One year after South Sudan declared independence, many humanitarian needs remain unmet. Communities lack access to basic health-care services. The situation is particularly difficult in northern regions close to the border with Sudan. Recent fighting in this area has had a direct impact on the availability and price of food, contributing to an increase in child deaths from malnutrition.

“In Malakal Teaching Hospital, there has been a dramatic rise in child malnutrition admissions over the past three months, since fighting escalated,” said Melker Mabeck, the head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in South Sudan. “Children are also arriving in a much worse condition.”

People in South Sudan have very poor access to health care. There is a shortage of facilities and skilled health workers and a limited supply of drugs and equipment. According to the Ministry of Health, South Sudan has about 120 medical doctors and just over 100 registered nurses for an estimated population of nearly nine million people.

This falls far below the doctor-patient ratio in neighbouring Kenya, for instance, where there are 14 doctors per 100,000 people, 10 times the ratio of South Sudan, according to World Health Organization statistics from 2006. Vulnerable groups like women, children, and the wounded are particularly at risk. South Sudan has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world.

In addition, the country is prone to diseases, with meningitis, measles, yellow fever, and whooping cough endemic in many areas. Preventable diseases such as malaria and acute respiratory infections are the leading causes of ill health. River blindness, sleeping sickness, and cholera are also common.

Another issue is the estimated 50,000 people in the country with physical disabilities, which are often due to injuries sustained in connection with the armed conflict. Landmines, already common in the pre-independence armed conflict between the north and the south, are still used today.

Together with the South Sudanese government, the ICRC manages a physical rehabilitation centre in Juba, the only one of its kind in the country. “A significant proportion of amputees are victims of landmines or unexploded ordnance left behind after clashes,” said Gerd Van de Velde, an ICRC project manager at the centre. “The rehabilitation work we do here gives these people a chance to rebuild a productive life.”

The ICRC also provides support for health-care facilities, such as Malakal Teaching Hospital. As the only referral hospital for Unity, Jonglei and Upper Nile states, the hospital has a vast catchment area of approximately three million inhabitants. Landmines are an issue in the area, much of which is almost entirely cut off during the rainy season that has just started. An ICRC medical team based in the hospital provides paediatric and physiotherapy along with trauma and emergency surgical care. It also delivers on-the-job training for hospital staff.

The ICRC’s operations in southern Sudan began in 1986. The organization set up a delegation in South Sudan’s biggest city, Juba, when the country became independent on 9 July 2011. The ICRC also has two sub-delegations in the new country, in Malakal and Wau. In South Sudan, the ICRC works to prevent violations of international humanitarian law and helps conflict-affected communities to survive and become self-sufficient.

A three-part series showing the struggle for health care in South Sudan released on Eurovision News Feeds and on www.icrcvideonewsroom.org:

South Sudan: facts and figures

Between July 2011 and June 2012:

● the ICRC surgical team in Malakal Teaching Hospital performed emergency surgery on more than 750 patients. Over half of the patients suffered from weapon-related injuries;

● 450 people wounded during clashes were treated using medical supplies and drugs donated by the ICRC to 10 hospitals and several first-aid posts;

● over 2,000 physically disabled people received treatment through ICRC-supported physical rehabilitation services. More than 400 artificial limbs were fitted for amputees, while hundreds of orthotic devices, wheelchairs, and crutches and sticks were also delivered. Just over 1,000 patients also benefited from physical therapy services. Approximately 30 per cent of the amputees to whom the ICRC has delivered artificial limbs since 2008 were victims of landmine accidents.

Image Courtesy of   United Nations Photo

The article South Sudan Struggles to Meet Health Care Needs appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Geneva, Switzerland – Despite major security constraints, the ICRC and the Mali Red Cross continue to help people affected by armed violence in northern Mali.

Jürg Eglin heads the ICRC’s regional delegation for Mali and Niger. “Access to health care, food and water is as difficult as ever in this region where food is short,” he explains. People are still having trouble getting hold of water in Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal.

“On 21 April, a Mali Red Cross convoy was able to deliver food and medicines to Timbuktu Hospital,” continued Mr Eglin. “We absolutely have to get access to the people affected by the violence, but we don’t yet have the security guarantees we need before launching a larger-scale humanitarian operation.”

The context is unstable and complex. The ICRC is currently ensuring that all parties understand and accept the neutral, independent, humanitarian work of the ICRC and the Mali Red Cross. It will only be possible to fully meet the huge needs in this region if the parties involved accept this role and give solid security guarantees.

Since 13 April, the ICRC has:

• sent a convoy from Niamey in Niger (on 17 April) that delivered medicines and medical supplies to Gao Hospital, enabling the
hospital to treat between 300 and 500 sick patients and around 100 casualties of the fighting;

• made an ICRC nurse and an ICRC midwife available to the medical team at Gao Hospital;

• delivered medicines to the main health centre in Ansongo, south of Gao, to help the centre resume its work;

• sent a surgeon and a doctor to the areas of Gao and Timbuktu, to treat people injured in the fighting;

• supplied some 5,000 litres of fuel per day to keep the water system in the town of Gao operating and prevent water shortages;

• sent a team to identify the most urgent needs in Kidal.

The ICRC is maintaining smaller teams than usual in Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu, so that it can continue operations in northern Mali. The organization has just opened an office in Mopti and is still operating in Bamako, the Malian capital. Finally, the ICRC is helping Malian refugees in Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Niger.

Image Courtesy of   Hector Conesa / Shutterstock.com

The article Mali Humanitarian Emergency: Unstable and Complex Context appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has just completed a distribution of seed and agricultural tools around Agok, a town in the southern part of the disputed Abyei area, to approximately 15,000 people who were displaced by fighting in May 2011. The host communities are also being provided with the aid, which should ensure adequate harvests in August this year.

Since clashes broke out last year in Abyei, a border area claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan, thousands of families have been forced to flee, abandoning their homes and belongings. Many ended up in remote villages around Agok town, where they were taken in by the local communities. Most have yet to return home.

“The families left everything behind when they fled last year, including their crops, which had been their main source of livelihood,” said Katia De Keukeleire, the head of the ICRC sub-delegation in Wau. “Their arrival has placed a burden on host communities whose food resources were already limited.

With the rains approaching, it will soon become very difficult to reach this area. The aid we distributed, which comes in advance of the planting season, restores a level of self-sufficiency to these families who can now produce food to eat or to sell. They cannot afford to lose another harvest.”

The distribution of aid to families with some access to land took place from 12 March to 4 April. Each family received staples such as sesame, groundnuts and sorghum seed, tools for tilling and some food as seed protection. Ms De Keukeleire added that some families fear returning to their homes and land because of the presence of landmines.

Mawien Malith is the deputy chief of Abatok village near Agok, one of the villages in which the ICRC is providing aid. Abatok saw its population double with the influx of displaced people. “Families fled Abyei town with nothing, leaving their crops behind. Villagers here took people in as best they could and shared what little they had with them. This distribution helps us to help ourselves. We can now plant when the rains arrive and the tools will serve us for years to come.”

The host communities have also been affected by clashes. Many people fled south from their isolated villages in the Abyei area, making it impossible to sow in time for planting season. Scant supplies have made it extremely difficult for them to return home. Many people have to rely on fishing to survive. The influx of displaced people has put further pressure on food supplies.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/

The article South Sudan: Red Cross Aid Reaches The Disputed Abyei Area appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

At the Kabul International Conference 2010, which was the first Conference to be held in Afghanistan at Foreign Minister level and to be run by the Afghan government, President Hamid Karzai expressed the Afghan government’s determination to have control of security transferred from foreign to Afghan forces. The Conference set the deadline for 2014, but even at the time, the BBC’s Ian Pannell questioned the feasibility of the, albeit, optimistic goal.

In a report, the British journalist estimated that the security situation across the country would not allow plans to move forward in the near future. Violence was on the rise and June 2010 was the deadliest month in nearly nine years of war. Roadside bombings, assassination and suicide attacks were all increasing exponentially but despite these numbers, military commanders and politicians gathered at the Conference were convinced the process was on the right track. The argument was that the rise in violence was a temporary result of the troops’ effort which sometimes aggressively targeted the Taliban. They believed the security of people in the south and east was improving as a result of areas now being controlled by government and not the insurgents. Additionally, there was broad optimism among officials about the numbers and capabilities of Afghan police and soldiers.

The realities a good seven months after the inspiring commitments of the Afghan government and the International Community, are less optimistic. Despite possessing more capabilities than before, the police force and the Afghan army is not considered at all battle-ready. Both groups have problems with desertion, illiteracy, drug abuse, poor supply and logistics as well as a lack of representation from the majority Pashtun ethnic group, the group from which many Taliban members originate, according to the BBC. Concerns have also been raised about the Taliban’s capacity to infiltrate the security forces and investigations are taking place to figure out what happened in the known instances of insider attacks. Screening procedures may need to be significantly revised.

The biggest obstacle remains the hardline Islamic Taliban movement. The group emerged in the early 1990s in northern Pakistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan and their early popularity was due to their humanitarian work for local communities – their involvement, however, soon brought international accusations of human rights and cultural abuses. A decade later, the Taliban in Afghanistan was accused of providing sanctuary for the al-Qaeda movement following 9/11 and was driven from power in Afghanistan by the US-led coalition.

The senior Taliban leader Mullah Omar has evaded capture since the invasion and is believed to be guiding the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan. Despite being under pressure  from security forces in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Taliban is presumed to be steadily extending their influence and rendering vast tracts of Afghanistan insecure.

The Red Cross said at a rare press conference in December 2010 that the US plan to start withdrawing troops from July this year, in accordance with Afghan desire for security handover by 2014, would be a great mistake. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed their concern by saying they expect fighting to increase in 2011 just as it had the year before – 2010 being the deadliest year of the war since 2001. Reuter’s quoted the head of ICRC in Afghanistan, Reto Stocker, for saying that “The proliferation of armed groups threatens the ability of humanitarian organisations to access those in need. Access for the ICRC has over the last 30 years never been as poor”.

This comes in conjunction with the increasingly tense relationship between the Afghan government and its Western backers. The often-uneasy ties have further deteriorated over a bank corruption scandal, a ban on private security contractors, election fraud, the establishment of a US base in the country and more recently, a row over civilian deaths in Kunar province.

The seven-months-old optimism is looking increasingly misplaced if the realities of the situation on the ground do not improve radically in the short term.

The article Afghan Hope for 2014 Security Control Face Key Difficulties appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.