The conflict in South Sudan has had a “devastating” impact on the fledgling country’s children with up to 50,000 at risk of dying by the end of the year without rapid intervention, says a new World Vision International report.
The cover of the World Vision International report.
“These children are distressed and vulnerable to grave violations of their rights, including sexual violence. They live in constant fear of attack and face a daily struggle to survive. As one child in South Sudan poignantly asks, ‘Can you imagine?'”
Issued earlier this week ahead of a donor conference in Europe, the report – Sounding the Alarm: The desperate plight of children in South Sudan – says that half of the more than 1.3 million who have been forced to flee their homes due to violence are children with tens of thousands of them among the 85,000 people still sheltering in UN compounds.
Noting that the country is now in the grip of a “severe food crisis”, it says that if treatment is not “scaled up immediately” up to 50,000 children under five may die and almost a quarter of a million children will be severely malnourished by the end of the year.
“The children caught up in this conflict have suffered or witnessed brutal atrocities,” the report says, noting that as many as 9,000 have been recruited or used by armed forces and others while many have lost or become separated from their parents.
“These children are distressed and vulnerable to grave violations of their rights, including sexual violence. They live in constant fear of attack and face a daily struggle to survive. As one child in South Sudan poignantly asks, ‘Can you imagine?'”
Violence broke out between the forces of President Salva Kiir and former Vice-President Riek Machar in South Sudan in mid-December last year. The parties met in Addis Ababa earlier this month and signed a peace treaty but fighting resumed soon afterwards.
It’s not all bad news. The report says that prior to the outbreak of violence last December, improvements in food security, education, health and basic services had “signalled a brighter future for this young nation”. “The current conflict has eroded some of these gains but through concerted and effective action hope can be restored.”
World Vision International has urged donors to commit more resources to fund a comprehensive aid effort that will see the children fed, cared for educated and protected and has called for the international community to become more engaged in bringing an end to the violence.
In Australia, World Vision has welcomed moves by the Federal Government to provide a further $2.8 million for the humanitarian crisis in South Sudan. As much as $650 million in aid was pledged at a donor conference in Oslo, Norway, this week, but organisation says more funds are required.
The report follows the release of two reports earlier this month – one from Amnesty International – and another from the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) – which documented human rights abuses including massacres of civilians, attacks on churches and hospitals and acts of sexual violence. The International Crisis Group put the death toll from the violence at close to 10,000 as far back as January.
To access the World Vision International report, follow this link.
To donate to World Vision Australia”s South Sudan Appeal call 13 32 40 or visit www.worldvision.com.au/SouthSudan
