Close to 500 people a day are arriving at Yida refugee camp in South Sudan, seeking safety from conflict and food insecurity in Sudan’s South Kordofan state. . The United Nations High Commission for Refguees reports a total of 63,500 refugees in an already overcrowded camp originally intended for 15,000 people. Having walked for days, and sometimes weeks across the Nuba Mountains, the refugees are arriving in extremely poor health.

South Sudan 2012 © V. Wartner/20 MINUTES
Yida refugee camp in Unity State, South Sudan. The UN reports a total of 63,500 people in the already overcrowded camp originally intended for 15,000.

“Most of our patients are in shock, and hospital mortality is going up as the camp’s population increases,” says Mego Terzian, a physician and emergency desk manager with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). “Given the sheer number of patients, we have to focus our attention on those whose lives are at risk and children suffering from diarrhea, severe infections and malnutrition.”

The majority of patients in the MSF-run hospital are children under five years old. The number of children admitted has doubled over the past month, increasing from 104 to 209.

The percentage of malnourished children seen in consultations has also gone up and hospital mortality has more than doubled in a month from seven per cent to 15 per cent, mainly due to diarrhea and severe infections, including pneumonia. MSF teams are doing their utmost to help parents recognize the symptoms that call for a child to be brought to hospital as quickly as possible.

The number of people in Yida camp, located in Unity State, has more than tripled since April 2012. The rains have already started and the water and sanitation supply are simply insufficient. Despite the efforts of the organizations working in the camp, reception and living conditions for the 63,500 refugees are utterly inadequate.

South Sudan 2012 © Sally McMillan/MSF
In MSF's clinic in Yida refugee camp, a doctor tends to a patient with diarrhea in the inpatient department.

“The majority of consultations in MSF’s medical facilities are for waterborne diseases that could be contained if there were enough latrines and adequate access to drinking water,” says André Heller-Perrache, head of mission for MSF in South Sudan.

To respond to the ever-increasing needs, MSF has stepped up its activities by increasing hospital capacity to 60 beds in three additional tents in the hospital. MSF is also reinforcing its existing team of 80 people.

MSF has been working in Yida in South Sudan's Unity State since November 2011. It runs a hospital in the refugee camp and a consultations service, as well as providing medical care at the camp registration point. In June, MSF vaccinated over 14,000 children under 15 against measles and continues to vaccinate children aged from 6 months to 5 years at the camp registration point. Other MSF teams provide assistance to Sudanese refugees in Upper Nile State.

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