IDP camps "permanent" in Wau

Camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Wau have become permanent villages on the outskirts of the capital of Bahr el Ghazal, and need appropriate assistance, International Action by Churches Together (ACT) said. ACT said it had been supporting the camps since late 1998, during the famine in Bar el Ghazal. The IDPs had arrived in Wau from areas where they had very little food. "Many were starving when they arrived in Wau and many died en route." In an appeal for US $594,749, ACT said IDPs had arrived in Wau over the last three years either in search of food or to escape fighting, and had received food from several NGOs, coordinated by the official Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC).

There had been a good response to previous appeals over the last two years, but it was now important for donors to help the IDPs develop the camps, the appeal stated. When the IDPs were asked if they would return to their home areas "they say they have no place to go and want to remain in the camps." Four camps set up and managed by ACT were receiving support from Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) and the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC). Continued assistance was needed in the field of nutrition; health care and medical inputs; agriculture and food security; and education.