South Sudan 'overwhelmed' by refugee influx and cholera outbreaks - MSF

NAIROBI — South Sudan is facing a "completely overwhelming" influx of refugees from war-torn Sudan as well as a rapidly growing cholera epidemic, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned Monday.

The medical charity said up to 5,000 people were crossing the border every day. The United Nations recently put the figure even higher at 7,000 to 10,000 a day.

Sudan is suffering one of the world's worst humanitarian emergencies since conflict broke out between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023, with tens of thousands killed and millions displaced.

An MSF emergency coordinator in Renk town, near a transit centre holding some 17,000 people according to the UN, said they were working with the International Committee of the Red Cross to provide care.

"But the situation is completely overwhelming and it's not enough," said Emanuele Montobbio.

Facilities are expanding, he said, but "over 100 wounded patients, many with serious injuries, still await surgery." 

Alhida Hammed fled to Renk after his village was attacked and he was shot in Sudan's Blue Nile state.

"The houses were blazing, and everyone was running in different directions," he said.

He now has no shelter and is living under a tree, but does not want to return to Sudan.

"Home is no longer a home, it is filled with bad memories."

'Death's door' 

South Sudan is ill-equipped to handle the arrival of thousands seeking shelter from war, with the young country itself battling violence, endemic poverty and natural disasters.

Huge numbers of its own citizens are living in camps for internally displaced people and many now face an "alarming and rapid increase" in cholera cases, said MSF.

It said 92 people had died following an outbreak in Unity state, and that it had treated over 1,210 people in just four weeks in Bentiu city.

In sprawling camps near the capital Juba, home to tens of thousands, MSF said it had treated some 1,700 suspected cases with 25 deaths reported by the community.

"What we are witnessing is not just a cholera outbreak, it is the result of systemic neglect," said MSF's South Sudan head of mission Mamman Mustapha.

He described "mountains of uncollected waste", broken latrines and raw sewage in the camps, leaving behind a legacy of contaminated drinking water and infected inhabitants at "death's door".

Without immediate action, he said, "we expect cholera cases to skyrocket in the coming days and weeks."