Escalating violence in northern South Sudan is severely hindering rural populations' access to medical care, intensifying the strain on one of the world's most fragile health systems amid rising cholera cases and soaring maternal mortality rates, aid groups have warned.
The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks South Sudan among nations with the weakest health infrastructure, a crisis now compounded by attacks on clinics, dwindling aid, and displacement from clashes in Upper Nile state.
Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), an international medical humanitarian organization, has reported closures of key facilities it supports, leaving thousands in dire need of care.
"South Sudan is experiencing a lot of challenges, disease outbreaks, we have flooding, we have displacement and now we have the clashes happening in the Upper Nile. And all these are leading to increased needs, increased demands for medical activities and medical services. So it is not time to cut funding for South Sudan. We urge the donors and other international community agencies to come in and support South Sudan," said Zakariya Mwatia, health care manager of MSF in South Sudan.
The newborn African country is currently battling to contain a cholera outbreak that is spreading across the country. The country's maternal, infant, and child mortality rates are among the highest in the world, and life expectancy is low.
Compounding the emergency, obstetric fistula -- a childbirth injury linked to inadequate maternal care -- is rising sharply, according to a medical doctor in Juba.
"When you have cholera it's pointing out that there are things that are not going well, when you have fistula then it's pointing out that there are things that are not going well, it points to so many things that are not going well, including stability. Because you may have health centers, you may have health workers, but when people are not stable to reach those health centers, then they may end up developing fistula," said Anthony Lupai, director general of Juba Teaching Hospital.
South Sudan has the world's fifth-highest maternal mortality rate (1,223 deaths per 100,000 live births) and a life expectancy of just 57 years, WHO data shows.
South Sudan's fragile health system buckles under conflict, cholera spread
