South Sudan
Latest South Sudan News
Returning Home
Over half of the refugees have now returned to their homes in Kajo Keji. The college is well on the way to being fully renovated with a new computer block being made ready for the students.
The ‘revitalised’ peace agreement is generally holding locally in Kajo Keji and the relationships between the military and the civilian population continues to hold however there was a recent local outbreak of unrest which resulted in several people losing their lives. The situation in South Sudan as a result appears to remain fragile.
The six schools (5 primary, 1 secondary and 1 college) in Kajo Keji are fully open again. A good education system is essential to enable the rebuilding of the confidence of the people in the region after so many years of troubles.
Remaining Challenges
As overseas aid support from some of the world’s richest countries is cut, we read that children are now dying as they are unable to receive basic medical care.
One example is of eight people, including five children, dying after walking for three hours in blistering heat to seek treatment for cholera in South Sudan’s eastern Jonglei state, as United States aid cuts forced local health facilities to close.
There is a general concern that South Sudan might be heading towards another civil war according to the United Nations. This is concern was prompted after escalating violence and rising tensions between Vice President Riek Machar and President Salva Kiir following the house arrest of Machar at the end of March. Machar’s party have said that the 2018 peace deal that ended years of fighting had collapsed.
On the refugee camps
UNHCR rations are in short supply and only available to the elderly and vulnerable children. Although nearly half of the refugees have returned home, the lack of food and space to grow crops on the camps remains a life threatening problem.
The Story of South Sudan
After many years of war, South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, achieved independence from the north in 2011. It is estimated that almost 400,000 people died in the five-year civil war that started in 2013. The country’s leaders, Mr Kiir and Mr Machar eventually signed a peace deal in 2018 and formed a unity government.
Since then, the country has battled flooding, hunger, violence and political bickering as the peace agreement has yet to be fully implemented. While large-scale clashes have subsided, violence in parts of the country persists. 2,240 people were killed in 2023, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project
In 2022, the Norwegian Refugee Council listed the conflict in South Sudan as one of the world’s 10 most neglected crises.
The people in the country regularly suffer from malnutrition which is primarily caused by extreme weather with flooding and severe heat waves a common occurrence.