Caritas Internationalis says that the humanitarian situation in South Sudan is one of the worst on the planet right now.
MICHEL ROY
Secretary General, Caritas Internationalis
'It is a forgotten war. We've got difficulties in raising funds to the level necessary to come to support...and I think the whole humanitarian community is confronted to this issue. So there are people dying of hunger in South Sudan today, so this is not acceptable. We have to work on this.â?
It is such a forgotten war that there aren't reliable statements about the number of victims or displaced people. An estimated 2,300,000 people have fled their homes; more than 6 million, half of its population, need emergency food aid, and some 15,000 child soldiers have been recruited.
MICHEL ROY
Secretary General, Caritas Internationalis
'So the whole country is at war and destroyed. There was not much before but now it's even worse. So it's really a terrible situation, one of the worst that can exist in the world today.â?
Since 2013, Southern Sudan has been immersed in a brutal civil war between supporters of President Salva Kiir, the Dinka, and his opponent and former vice president, Riek Machar, from the Nuer ethnic group. For political, ethnic and foreign reasons, the youngest country in the world is bleeding to death. Meanwhile, its northern neighbor has never looked favorably on the independence of this part of the Sudanese.
MICHEL ROY
Secretary General, Caritas Internationalis
'So there is a responsibility not only among the people in South Sudan, but also of North Sudan.â?
According to the UN, 6 out of 10 people have lost a family member in a war in which inhumane crimes were committed. A recent report documented mass rapes of women and girls as payment for the rebels and government soldiers. It also documented burning people alive, asphyxiating groups in containers and mass executions in death camps.
Some sources speak of 300,000 deaths, almost as many as five years of war in Syria. For analysts, the absence of reliable figures gives immunity to these crimes and guarantees they will continue to occur.
Several humanitarian organizations have withdrawn their troops from the area. Caritas South Sudan, however, with their limited funds, continues assisting a population whose misfortune never be cover in the papers.
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