South Sudan: As many as 2m children are suffering from malnutrition

The Irish Examiner travelled to South Sudan to meet with some of the 1.1m refugees who have fled across the border from civil war in Sudan. Women, children and men all shared stories of pain but also of their hope for something better in their futures

Abuk Malong with her stepson who is being treated at the clinic. Pictures: Eugene Ikol, Concern Worldwide

Cartoon music and canned laughter drift from a small white building, its murals showing breastfeeding mothers and nurses at work.

Inside pink mosquito nets hang above small beds in this South Sudanese health clinic, caring for children suffering from malnutrition and illnesses.

Sitting on one bed, Mary Guak, aged 29, explains her six-month-old baby has not fed properly for about two months, and now has breathing difficulties with a fever.

“We’ve been here three days,” she said. “The child is improving now.”

She usually sells nets in the market to make money for food, but supply is running low, her eldest daughter had come to tell her.

The family is not alone with aid agencies warning as many as 2m children in South Sudan struggle with malnutrition.

In another bed, newly-arrived Abuk Malong sits with her three-year-old stepson.

“We don’t have enough food to eat because the children don’t have a father. I’m their father and their mother,” she said.

 

This article is part of a series on South Sudan. Read more here:

• The 'forgotten war' where children as young as one face sexual abuse;
• Cholera outbreak latest calamity to hit displaced people;
• Woman fleeing war gives birth on road at 2am;
• World's youngest country takes in 1.1 million refugees;
• Refugees fleeing blood flow are a constant trickle;
• Classrooms empty for weeks as temperatures hit 40C.

She took on two children after marrying their father who had since died. His first wife struggles with severe mental ill-health — this system of ‘co-wives’ is common in the region.

The clinic in the Gok Machar health compound is connected to a nutrition centre.

It sits in a state bordering war-torn Sudan with services stretching to accommodate refugees fleeing fighting that broke out there in April 2023.

Malnourishment estimates among refugee children are as high as 30% in some camps, the World Health Organization has warned.

In both countries, the war exacerbated food shortages caused by extreme weather changes.

Paediatric nurse Isaac Garang grew up locally and said: “We receive complications like dehydration, pneumonia, malaria and other infections. These are the common cases.”

They treat children with antibiotics and F-100 therapeutic milk.

Rebecca Awan with her daughter Sarah. 

In the third occupied bed, Rebecca Awan watches her nine-month-old daughter Sarah.

“(She) is having constant fever, and she doesn’t grow,” she said, describing how her daughter doesn’t eat.

Nurse Isaac measures the baby’s tiny arm using a colour-coded band which indicates her malnourished state.

Nutritional assistant Peter Aturjong is busy already, but emphasised: “In the wet season we have more, we have more than 20 per day.”

About five might need a referral to the specialist clinic, he said.

Paediatric nurse Isaac Garang. 

“We can refer more. We have plastic mats and we use them to put them down so that we can keep them.”

Peter also oversees checks after discharge due to concerns a specialist peanut-based paste called “Plumpy’Nut®” is often shared with other relatives.

“We try to counsel the mother and tell her that this is a medicine, it is something designed for the children,” he said.

Isaac, who works for Concern Worldwide, works seven days a week from 7am to 7pm while a colleague covers 7pm to 7am.

“I’m tired but we are helping our community, and this is what’s important,” he said.