Renewed fighting a threat to health

Contingency plans by health organisations are underway in northern Bahr el Ghazal because intensified fighting may cause large-scale displacement. Plans by OLS health agencies began after the July military offensive by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) - in which it took control of the town of Gogrial in northern Bahr el Ghazal - and the government’s response in bombing surrounding areas. A July report by WHO said the SPLA advance on Aweil, the northern point of the railhead that forms the key supply route for the government stronghold of Wau, could threaten the evacuation of some 150,000 people from both towns. Aerial bombardment alone was unlikely to cause large population movements, as the population was used to it, and many compounds had rudimentary bomb shelters, it said. The number of civilians displaced could be greater than 150,000 depending on the movement of a government train carrying troops between Aweil and Wau, as it was often accompanied by horseback militia who rampaged through track-side villages, the WHO report said.

Such displacement “crowds people in poor conditions, provides favourable conditions for fast-spreading outbreaks” the report quoted WHO official Dr Ayana Yeneabat as saying. “What we could have is an acute emergency in a chronic emergency situation,” said Yeneabat, WHO officer in charge at the OLS logistical base in Lokichoggio. More than 75 percent of illness and death in South Sudan is related to infectious disease, even with recent improvements in early warning, according to WHO statistics. The OLS health agencies are trying to establish the resources that each organisation has in the area affected by the renewed fighting in order to improve their responsiveness in the event of significant population movements.