The number of refugees at a camp in Benitu in South Sudan increased from 30,000 to 120,000 in just six months, straining every aspect of the camp, including healthcare, a Medecins Sans Frontieres nurse has revealed, recounting the horrifying situation in the world’s youngest nation.
Michael Shek spent six month in the violence torn country, and witnessed terrifying scenes as the refugees seeking shelter and protection struggled to stay alive.
“When I first arrived at the camp in Bentiu, it was chaotic. There were 30,000 people living there who had fled the violence in their hometowns. Over the course of six months, this increased to 120,000 people. We were running the only healthcare facility in the camp and were working around the clock,” Shek said.
He said he once had to carry bodies of 15 children who had died into a morgue during a malaria outbreak.
“Bentiu became hell on earth. Suddenly we were treating 4,000 people with malaria every week and I was running from one sick kid to another, trying to keep them all alive. There was one day when we had 15 children die, and I had to carry their bodies into the morgue,” he said.
The nurses in the camp handle huge numbers of sickness cases, and at some point treated 16,000 children in just eight days.
Shek said that there are many atrocities happening in South Sudan, including soldiers raiding villages, stealing cattle and raping women.
What’s happening in this area of South Sudan is atrocious. We heard stories of government soldiers raiding villages, stealing cattle and raping women. People have suffered so much.
It’s especially hard to see children suffer. So many were traumatised, frightened and injured. You feel like crying out, ‘They’re just kids – they’ve not done anything to anyone’. It matters that we continue to fight to keep people alive. It matters to all those mothers.
South Sudan went through a devastating two-year civil war before President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar signed a UN backed peace deal last year to end the fighting.
The deal has been continually broken, and currently Machar is away from Juba after fighting occurred again in the capital in July.
