IOM medical teams in South Sudan's Western Equatoria State
(WES) are braving insecurity to provide badly needed medical
services to groups of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who have
little or no access to health care facilities.

The teams have been travelling long distances on poor roads to
reach the displaced in WES, which borders the Democratic Republic
of the Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR), where
militias of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) often cross over the
border to carry out raids.

The IDPs had fled their homes in 2008 because of LRA frequent
attacks on their villages. Many villagers in Southern Sudan have
been killed or wounded by the LRA in the past two years.

The organization is one of few agencies providing health care
services in WES since 2008.

The IOM teams are carrying out primary health care services with
average of 80 IDPs attending the mobile clinics per day, many of
them suffering from respiratory infections, malaria, dysentery,
skin infections and malnutrition.

In order to provide regular access to health care particularly
for IDPs in hard to reach locations, IOM is now considering setting
up  fixed clinics in different sites to replace the mobile
clinics which currently provide services to Yambio, Nzara, Tambura
and Ezo counties. Fixed clinics should reduce security risks on the
health workers during long distance journeys and improve the
provision of health services.

IOM operates mobile clinics in IDP camps and returnee transit
sites in five states of South Sudan: Western Equatoria, Central
Equatoria, Warrap, Upper Nile, and Western Bahr el Ghazal.

If insecurity, remoteness and lack of roads are the main
challenges in WES, in Upper Nile State it is the sheer numbers of
those who seek medical services that overwhelm the small contingent
of eight medical staff.

IOM mobile clinic at Renk in the Upper Nile state operates on
daily basis to provide urgently needed consultations and treatment
to thousands of returnees who have been stranded in the town for
more than three months for lack of transport to their villages in
the south.

The clinic receives up to 80 returnees per day, including
pregnant women, children and persons living with disabilities. The
returnees, who were living in the outskirts of Sudan's capital,
Khartoum, many of them for several years, decided to return to the
South following the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement
and the subsequent independence of the South in July this year.

IOM in collaboration with WHO and State Ministries of Health and
other health cluster partners provide basic health care services
including prenatal care and immunizations, facilitate health
referrals, travel health assistance including fitness-to-travel
health checks and health education/health promotion activities.

The IOM health staff, who work at the IOM clinic located in the
camp say the number of people seeking consultations has been
reduced markedly following improvements in the provision of medical
services and increased WASH activities such as the provision of
safe water, the digging of latrines and waste management. 
However, malaria cases are still prevalent and continue to pose a
health risk particularly to babies and minors.

In Wau, the capital of Western Bahr al Ghazal, which has
recently witnessed an influx of persons displaced by the violence
in the neighbouring Abyei region, the IOM clinic receives 50
consultation cases per day on average. This is a slight reduction
from the numbers at the peak of the influx as many displaced
persons have started to return to their homes in Abyei.

IOM is in negotiations with Wau State Ministry of Health to
allow the organization to set up a health centre near to where most
displaced persons are located. The measure is necessary because
there are no medical services at all in those areas.

IOM has requested funds to set up a badly needed HIV prevention,
care and support unit for IDPs and host communities.  HIV/AIDS
is a major concern in WES with 10 per cent prevalence which is the
highest in Republic of South Sudan.

For more information, contact:

Fabien Sambussy

IOM Juba

Tel: + 249 (0)922 40 66 50

E-mail: "mailto:fsambussy@iom.int">fsambussy@iom.int