Ethnic Conflict in Jonglei state

Save the children is responding to the ethnic conflict in Pibor. Up to 25,000 women and children have fled fighting in Pibor County, South Sudan and are hiding in the bush. They are likely to be without food, water or shelter.  Many children will have become separated from their families in the chaos. Save the Children is extremely concerned that children will be caught up in the fighting; killed, injured, abducted or recruited to fight. We are preparing to scale up our work and re-enter Pibor as soon as we can.

Latest information

OP-ED: A brighter future still a long way off for South Sudan by Save the Children's Melinda Young

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Podcast: South Sudan Turmoil ABC Radio

The Voices of South Sudan's Future

While South Sudan gained independence on the 9th of July, peace is by no means assured and conditions remain harsh.We encouraged children to voice their hopes and dreams for the development of this newest nation, 193rd in the world.

Southern Sudan continues to struggle with a huge influx of displaced people returning to the region. There are still approximately 1.5 million southerners living in the north. Many of them will return to South Sudan over the coming months, placing increased strain on the already overstretched capacity of government and humanitarian agencies to respond, and great strain on communities hosting the returnees.

Those that have crossed the border back into South Sudan are living outside crowded into cramped shelters, some with little access to clean water or food. Save the Children's Director of Policy and Research Patrick Watt said, "Children in South Sudan face some of the toughest conditions of all the world's children. Most have grown up in war. Many have never been to school or been able to get even the most basic treatment if they fall ill."

• Half of South Sudan's 8.2 million people lives on under $1 per day

• One in nine children dies before their fifth birthday

• One in seven women dies during or immediately after childbirth

• There is one trained doctor for every 100,000 people

• Almost a quarter (22%) of all children in South Sudan are acutely malnourished.

• One in ten children will complete primary school. Three times more boys than girls attend school, and dropout rates for girls are the highest in the world

• South Sudan's life expectancy is 42 years

What Save the Children is doing:

Save the Children is one of the few organisations with a presence in every state of South Sudan.

• We're helping to save children's lives through the provision of lifesaving community and facility-based health care. We've helped to establish 63 primary health care facilities and reached 338,728 men, women and children directly.
•  We've established outpatient nutrition programmes, and to date we have directly reach 30,142 people through this work, including 23,826 children under the age of five.
• We're protecting families from food insecurity by increasing and safeguarding their assets, and we're finding ways to help young people grow their income.
• We're helping children get a better education by increasing access to early childhood development and primary schools, training teachers and supplying teaching and learning materials. In 2010 we directly reached 160,998 people, including 157,808 children.
• We're protecting children by reuniting separated and demobilised children with their families, and setting up community-based child protection networks.

Millions of children have had their lives impacted by the conflict in South Sudan. Save the Children asked them to share how their lives have been affected.

"My family is Dinka. My mother is called Abuk. My father died during the first attack (May 2008). He was an SPLA soldier. I have three brothers; we all came with our mother to Mayen Abun. I don't like being in this place because we are homeless staying under the trees. Rain washes over us, the heat from the sun beats down on us."

Lual, 14 years old

"In the evening at 4pm, there was an Antonov plane moving around over my house 3 times, and then boom. My mum told us to stay together. We slept, and there was the sound of shooting. My mother collected a few items and the shooting continued. We ran to Anet Town and walked for 4 days to reach Mayen Abun. We were so tired and my younger brother and sister cried so much. We really don't like being in Mayen Abun. Life has changed and there is not enough food. We are homeless and my mum cries every night. Out father was killed last year. We like Save the Children because the Child Friendly Space keeps us busy and makes us forget the incident that we have undergone."

Achil, 12 years old

 
To support children & families affected by emergencies like the South Sudan Crisis, donate to our Chidren's Emergency Fund.