The government of the Pibor Administrative Area has raised an alarm over the increase in death rate and the deteriorating humanitarian situation that comes after the evacuation of health workers.
The government has tied the lack of healthcare services and food to the increasing mortalities.
The Pibor Minister of Information and Communication, Jay Adangor, said the latest was of a woman who died on Monday in Pibor Hospital due to lack of medication.
He said several deaths have been reported in the remote areas due to a lack of basic services since the aid workers quit the area.
“People are suffering, people are dying because of lack of medication and those who are depending on humanitarian organizations for food are in a dire situation,’’ said Mr. Adangor. “There is no network in a remote part of the town so we are not able to collect actual data of those dying.”
He said the community members had now resorted to rudimentary methods of treatment such as the use of herbs as a result of the problem.
“No health facility that is operating now in Pibor town or other areas outside the town. [This now] means all the people who are depending on organizations for such help are not getting treatment and they are depending on herbs,” he added.
Mr. Adangor called on the humanitarian agencies to return to Pibor to assist the needed population saying the government and the disgruntled youth have resolved the matter that posed a threat to organizations in the area.
Resolving the matter
He said that earlier this month, the government wrote a letter to all organizations requesting their return to the area. However, it is yet to receive a response from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).
“I am requesting organizations to come back because the humanitarian situation is not in good condition since they left the ground. People are now suffering. There is no health facility people can go to for treatment,” he said.
He went on to add: “We are waiting for the humanitarian organizations to respond to our request for them to return to the ground since those youth who wrote to the government threatening them have a meeting with the Chief Administer and they regretted what they have done and also wrote a letter of apology to NGOs.”
Threats
On October 5, disgruntled Pibor youth wrote a letter to the NGOs operating in the area to evacuate their workers within 72 hours or face attacks due to alleged unfair jobs allocation to indigenous citizens by the organizations.
The move prompted the aid workers to leave the hard-hit flood area which has displaced the entire population and livelihood sources destroyed since July this year.
Attacks on NGOs by youth due to lack of employment have become rampant in South Sudan where more than half of 72 percent of people are unemployed.
In September this year, youth in Renk County of Upper Nile rejected the local authorities’ intervention in resolving their demand for equal employment. This followed May’s attack by the youth on NGO’s compounds forcing them to limit operation in the region.
However, in a statement this month, WFP South Sudan Country Representative Matthew Hollingsworth expressed deep concern over the continuous threat against aid agencies, crippling humanitarian service delivery to thousands in need in the country.
“We are here to deliver critical assistance to the most vulnerable people including women, children, and the elderly. I call for the authorities and communities to ensure the safety and security of humanitarian personnel,” said Hollingsworth.