8 people die from cholera in South Sudan as funding cuts force longer walks to clinics
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Five children were among eight people who died from cholera in South Sudan after aid cuts are forcing patients to walk for hours to the nearest clinics, an aid organization said Wednesday.
The Save the Children charity organization said the deaths were recorded in the flood-prone eastern Jonglei state where it had closed seven health centers. Some 20 others are partially run by volunteers but cannot transport patients as they did prior to the cuts.
This is the latest fallout from the termination of USAID programs in conflict and drought-hit countries across the East Africa, leaving millions of people in need of more immediate aid.
Save the Children South Sudan Country Director Chris Nyamandi said in a statement that children's needs in conflict-hit countries must be prioritized.
'There should be global moral outrage that the decisions made by powerful people in other countries have led to child deaths in just a matter of weeks,' he said.
The medical director at the government-run Akobo hospital where most cholera cases are being managed described the situation as 'catastrophic' as health ministry figures show at least 46,716 cases and 871 deaths reported countrywide since October.
Nyuon Koang told the Associated Press that there was only one government health facility in full operation in Walgak town.
Last month, the U.N warned that South Sudan was teetering on the edge of a renewed civil war after an armed group in the north overrun an army base and attacked a U.N helicopter. Government troops responded with a series of airstrikes and the country's vice president and main opposition leader Riek Machar remains under house arrest for incitement.
The World Food Program (WFP) has warned that hunger in South Sudan was nearing record highs with 'almost 7.7 million people facing levels of hunger categorized as crisis, emergency, or catastrophic.'
Funding cuts in East Africa have also impacted programs in Somalia where more than 6 million people are facing acute food insecurity. More funding cuts could push millions further into a full-blown famine.
In March, WFP said that 3.4 million Somalians were already experiencing crisis-levels of hunger or worse and that it would from April support '820,000 people monthly with food and cash assistance, down from a peak of 2.2 million reached monthly in 2024.'
The U.S State Department said Tuesday that it had rolled back sweeping funding cuts to WFP emergency projects in 14 impoverished countries that included Somalia, saying it had terminated some of the contracts for life-saving aid by mistake.
Mohamed Elmi Afrah, a longtime aid worker and political analyst based in Somalia told The Associated Press that effects of funding cuts were global but the 'impact is especially severe in Africa.'
'In Somalia, aid plays a vital role in supporting internally displaced persons, people affected by conflict, and other vulnerable communities who depend heavily on humanitarian assistance,' he said.
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