UN Shows 'Shocking Indifference' Towards Displaced People: Doctors

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Common Dreams

Published on Thursday, April 10, 2014 by Common Dreams

UN Shows 'Shocking Indifference' Towards Displaced People: Doctors

Charity slams UN Mission in South Sudan for ignoring plight of displaced people living in flooded, disease-ridden camp

- Sarah Lazare, staff writer

The humanitarian aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) slammed the United Nations Mission in South Sudan on Wednesday for refusing to improve the conditions and "chances of survival" for 21,000 displaced people living at a flooded UN base in the capital Juba, where they are subject to dangerous conditions, diseases, and "potential epidemics." In a strongly worded condemnation, MSF accused the UN of a "shocking display of indifference" towards displaced people living at the neglected Tomping camp.

"The displaced people in the Tomping camp are crowded into low-lying parts of a UN compound prone to flooding," reads the MSF statement. "Diarrheal diseases, respiratory infections, and skin diseases already account for more than 60 percent of the cases seen at MSF's clinic in the camp, before the rainy season has begun in earnest."

According to the statement, 150 latrines at the camp collapsed during the season's first rainfall, "their contents mixing with floodwater."

"The UNMISS decision not to improve conditions in Tomping is shameful," said Carolina Lopez, MSF emergency coordinator. "People are living in natural drainage channels because there is no other space. And the rains, which will last the better part of six months, are becoming heavier. If nothing is done right now, the already horrific consequences could become fatal."


Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/04/10-1

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