JUBA — At least five children in South Sudan died while undertaking a challenging journey to seek medical treatment for cholera after health centers closed during a significant outbreak of the deadly disease due to US cuts of funding, Save the Children reported on Wednesday.
“The children, from a remote part of Akobo County in the country’s east, along with three adults, died during the three-hour walk from their village to the nearest remaining health facility in Akobo town. The group walked in blazing sun, where temperatures reached as high as 40 degrees Celsius, with no access to clean water, shade, or medicines,” Save the Children said in a statement on Wednesday.
It noted that earlier this year, these children and adults would have had access to lifesaving treatment at one of the 27 health facilities established and supported by Save the Children, which provided free and critical healthcare for conditions such as malnutrition and cholera.
“However, due to this year’s foreign aid cuts, these services are no longer available, with seven of these health facilities forced to shut completely and the remaining 20 partially closed. Some of these centers are now only being run by volunteers, and there is no longer transportation available to take severely ill people to the hospital in town.”
The statement also highlighted that cholera, which is caused by abnormally heavy rains and flooding, has been surging in Akobo County since mid-February. Notably, 44% of the reported cases involve children aged 17 and younger.
“Floods have also devastated crops and, combined with ongoing conflict, have led to families in Akobo County experiencing ‘critical’ levels of food insecurity and malnutrition—some of the worst in the country.”
Save the Children staff reported that half the children they see in the clinics still operating across Akobo County are suffering from malnutrition—one of the leading killers of children worldwide, which compromises immune systems and makes children more susceptible to diseases like cholera.
Meanwhile, the area has been swept up in a nationally escalating security situation, with recent airstrikes in Akobo County. The nationwide tensions risk spiraling the country back into conflict seven years after the landmark peace agreement, further jeopardizing humanitarian access in a country where 78% of the population is in need of aid.
In the clinics where Save the Children is still able to provide some services, the aid agency has been supporting a cholera treatment unit and is providing infection prevention and control as well as water, sanitation, and hygiene supplies and awareness.
For now, many cholera patients in Akobo County have to make do with dwindling supplies of oral rehydration sachets, usually used for mild cases of diarrhea. If they are unable to get to the clinics that are still functioning, they have resorted back to traditional forms of medicine, such as eating local herbs.
Sarah*, 24, a cholera patient in a remote community in Akobo County, said, “I am sick. My stomach is in pain, and I cannot move. They said I can go to the hospital in town, but I am weak, and it is far. The doctor is helping his people for free. When Save the Children left, we had no hope. This doctor is only helping and sending us to Akobo to receive medicines.
“We used to be happy—there were many doctors and enough medicine. We did not suffer much. But we are now suffering. Sick people are being carried to the hospital because they cannot walk for many hours.”
Michael, a community health worker who volunteers at the health facility, said, “Since the cuts, the community is really suffering; we don’t have good medications. Before we had all medications for various diseases, and patients were treated on time; now we have no choice. We see patients suffering, and we can’t help. We can only refer, knowing that it’s difficult for some patients to reach the hospital in town in time to be helped since it is almost three hours of walking.
“Now there is a serious cholera outbreak. We don’t have any medications apart from oral rehydration salt (ORS), which is very limited; we only give one sachet per patient.”
Chris Nyamandi, Save the Children Country Director in South Sudan, said, “There should be global moral outrage that the decisions made by powerful people in other countries have led to child deaths in just a matter of weeks.
“It is critical that the world wake up to the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in South Sudan—a country where four out of five people need aid to survive. We must do everything in our power to prevent such deaths from happening again. The first step is to make sure the current tensions in the country do not escalate further. Children and families in South Sudan need peace and stability that will allow Save the Children and other aid groups to rise to this emerging challenge, adapt to the new global reality, and do our utmost to put children’s needs first—to ensure this travesty does not happen again.”
Save the Children has worked in South Sudan since 1991, when it was part of Sudan. The child rights organization provides children with access to education, healthcare, and nutritional support and families with food security and livelihoods assistance.
