ICRC activities in the field – Darfur and South Sudan
May 16, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Latest report on ICRC activities in the fields in Sudan’s Darfur region and southern Sudan.
Security situation in Darfur remains precarious
As the peace negotiations in Abuja continued, the security situation in all three Darfur
states remained very precarious. There were clashes east of Jebel Marra (North
Darfur), tensions remained high along the border with Chad,and fighting continued in
the area of Shearia as well as around the town of Gereida in South Darfur.
Violent confrontations drastically limitedcivilians’ freedom of movement, affecting access
to fields for planting and alsopreventing traders from reaching markets. An increase
incrimeposed an additional threat aspeople ran the risk of losing their possessions to
looters or bandits.
Armed clashes and banditry in all three Darfur states havealso affectedhumanitarian
organizations. The ICRC was set upon and looted whilstcarrying out field activities and
thus prevented from getting access to people in need.
Public Health Centre in Gereida sees up to 700 patients a day
The recent escalation of fighting near Gereida town has had a direct impact on local
civilians, forcing them to leave home and seek shelter in the periphery of the camp set
up as shelter for the displaced. The British and Australian Red Cross Societies and the
ICRC havecounted some 5,000 new arrivalsover the past few weeks.As a result, the
number of consultations in the camp’s Public Health Care Centre has gone up from
some 500 to 700 a day.
Since it opened in October 2004, the Gereida Primary Health Care Centre has grown
continuously and has adapted to the new realities of the town and its camp. It is now
equipped with a laboratory, a pharmacy, a vaccination corner and a re-hydration room.
At the beginning of the conflict, Gereida hospital was providing health services to the
town’s 20,000 inhabitants and to an equal number of internally displaced people. Today,
the number of the internally displaced has increased four-fold to approximately 80,000.
This places enormous pressure on the Primary Health Care Centre, which is staffed by
up to ten health workers and four medical assistants, supervised by a doctor from the
British Red Cross Society.
Rehabilitation of water yards in North Darfur
Given the number of people and animals in the vast area north of Kutum (North Darfur),
demands on available water areimmense, especially during the dry season. However,
there is no surface water, andboth the local population and their livestock depend for
most of the year on water coming from underground. To provide better storage for this
water, the ICRC started rehabilitating two water yards in April of this year, one inAl Hosh
and one in Wakhaim.
Families reunited in Darfur
On 10 April, two young boys who had been held in detention were reunited with their
families at the ICRC sub-delegation in Nyala. The two youngsters had been separated
from their families and deprived of their freedom for six months. They were registered
by ICRC delegateswho visited them in their place of detention. Following a request from
the detaining authorities, the ICRC, in its capacity as neutral, independent and
humanitarian organization, facilitated the boys’transfer and handover to their families.
During an attack on her village near Kutum in 2003, Aisha Hassan lost contact with her
son, Abdelhakim. Aisha herself ended up at a displaced people’s camp in Zalingei in
West Darfur. In December 2004 she opened a tracing request with the ICRC in an effort
to find her missing boy.
Eight months later, an ICRC tracing team in Chad found the boy’s uncle in the Iridimi
refugee camp. The uncle told them that Abdelhakim wasstill in Kutum town, living with a
cousinand working in a restaurant.When the KutumICRC tracing team eventually
foundhim three months later, Abdelhakim wrote a Red Cross Message to his mother
saying he wanted to join her. When Aisha received themessage in January 2006, it was
thefirst contact she had had with her son in almost three years. The two were reunited
in mid-April, in Zalingei.
ICRC activities in Southern Sudan
The cholera outbreak that started at the beginning of the year and spread from Yei to
Juba, is now being reported in six of the ten states in Southern Sudan.Currently, the
ICRC is supporting the treatment of patients suffering fromacute watery diarrhoea
(AWD) at the Juba Teaching Hospital. In April, the organizationdonated more than
2,000 litres of infusions, 8,000 sachets of re-hydrationsaltsand other medical items to
health centres in Akobo, Bor, Pochalla (Jonglei State), Lafon, Pacidi and Liriya (Eastern
Equatoria State), Yei and Rokon (Central Equatoria State).
Preparations are underway to erect two Rubb Hall units and seven tents to
accommodate patients from the 500-bed Juba Teaching Hospital during the renovation
and rehabilitation of the premises. Some150 to160 patients will be housed in the tents
at any one time, The renovation work is scheduled to begin in May and will last for
approximately one year.
Following the clashes in Pochalla in early April, an ICRC team travelled to the area to
assess the situation,collect information relating to the protection of the civilian
population and distribute 190 household kits containing mosquito nets, plastic sheeting,
cooking pots, blankets and other items to displaced families. While in the area, they
took the opportunity to follow up on existing tracing cases and to identify new ones.
In addition, 400 kg of IV fluids and other medical supplies were handed over to World
Relief for the Pochalla Primary Health Care Centre to treat cases of acute watery
diahorrea.