Over recent weeks, the ICRC has helped to fight a meningitis outbreak in Darfur. Along the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the ICRC has assisted 18,000 people displaced by violence.
A meningitis outbreak in Darfur
In close cooperation with the Sudanese Red Crescent and other components of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the ICRC is responding to life-threatening situations, including those emanating from the gap left by international non-governmental organisations expelled in March, especially in remote areas of Darfur where few other humanitarian organizations are working.
On 27 March, the ICRC started a vaccination campaign against the deadly disease of meningitis in the towns of Kutrum, Kati and Thur and their surrounding areas in the region of Jebel Marra, in central Darfur. The Ministry of Health had declared an outbreak of the disease on 11 March. ICRC health staff are supervising the campaign, while the WHO and UNICEF, along with the Khartoum-based MSF-Switzerland, are supplying the vaccines.
Fifteen ICRC staff have joined forces with dozens of Sudanese-trained vaccinators to contain the disease as quickly as possible by focusing their efforts on specific areas.
"This operation is difficult to coordinate, since it involves such factors as maintaining the cold chain and ensuring that the medical supplies used are in suitable condition," said Vincent Ochilet, head of the ICRC's sub-delegation in Zalingei. "The security situation will also affect the pace at which the vaccinations take place and the extent of the territory covered."
Sudan is part of what is commonly called Sub-Saharan Africa's "meningitis belt," which extends from Ethiopia in the east to Guinea-Bissau and Gambia in the west, and includes Chad and the Central African Republic, Eritrea, Uganda and Kenya. This new wave of meningitis broke out in February 2009 and has already affected dozens of people, resulting in several deaths in the area of Western Jebel Marra.
"A decade has passed since the last big outbreak and we have to be vigilant," said Frances Devlin, ICRC primary health coordinator in Sudan. "Communication within Jebel Marra is very difficult and there may be other pockets of meningitis we are not aware of."
So far, 31,323 people in Kutrum, Thur, Kurfal, Buldong and Kati have been vaccinated and the campaign is moving to Gildo next week. The objective is to vaccinate more than 65 percent of the population between 2 and 30 years of age in this mountainous region exposed to the disease.
Clean drinking water for displaced people in Muhajiriyya, South Darfur
Tens of thousands of people displaced from the Muhajiriyya and Labado areas are said to have sought refuge in and around Khazzan Jadeed after an armed opposition group launched a military offensive against the towns.
ICRC water engineers spent two days and two nights in the Khazzan Jadeed area repairing 17 hand pumps, thus bringing clean drinking water to the local communities and the displaced people there. They also trained eight local water technicians to maintain the pumps and supplied the town’s water committee with the tools needed for regular maintenance of all 28 hand pumps in the area. Meanwhile, in Labado, the ICRC set up a water distribution point by manufacturing and erecting a water tower and extending pipes from a new borehole to the water tank.
An earlier ICRC assessment had reported that access to water in both areas was very poor and could lead to communal tensions. More than half of the hand pumps in the Khazzan Jadeed area needed repairs.
Emergency aid for victims of Malakal fighting
Heavy fighting at the end of February between Sudanese Army units and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in the southern city of Malakal left dozens of people dead and injured.
With the agreement of both parties to the conflict, ICRC staff contacted the Malakal Civil Hospital – the main hospital in the city, where most civilian and some military casualties are taken – for information about its needs.
"Two days after the fighting began, ICRC aircraft delivered urgently needed medical supplies and evacuated some of the wounded soldiers to Khartoum for further treatment," said Olivier Charmes, the ICRC delegate in charge of the Malakal operation.
Kits for treating war-wounded people, dressing materials and other medical supplies were donated to the Malakal Civil Hospital and two military medical units to enable both sides to deal with the large number of casualties.
A military hospital belonging to the United Nations Mission in Sudan received at least 10 military and civilian casualties. With the agreement of all parties involved, the ICRC arranged to transfer some of the wounded military personnel from this hospital to their own areas after they received treatment.
The Sudanese Red Crescent branch in Malakal helped collect dead bodies and take them to the hospital. A total of 31 civilians were reported to have lost their lives and 52 to have been injured.
Essential assistance for displaced people in the south
For several months now, following an upsurge in violence caused by the Lord's Resistance Army, people have been crossing into Southern Sudan from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in search of safety.
The violence spilled over into Southern Sudan, forcing Congolese refugees and Sudanese civilians to leave everything behind and flee to the Sudanese states of Western and Central Equatoria. More than 43,500 Sudanese are estimated to be displaced inside the country, with nearly 18,000 Congolese seeking refuge in Southern Sudan. Among the refugees are unaccompanied children, some of whom are too young to explain who they are or where they came from.
ICRC staff in Juba and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, along with their partners from the Sudanese Red Crescent Society and the Red Cross Society of the Democratic Republic of the Congo,are tracing displaced persons and unaccompanied children in the area. The ICRC is also providing displaced children and their host families with clean drinking water and household essentials.
Thanks to the cross-border Red Cross and Red Crescent network, news has been conveyed between people separated by the latest upsurge of violence, and several children have been able to return to their families. For those still waiting to be reunited with their loved ones, however, the anguish continues.
By March, nearly 18,000 people had received blankets, kitchen sets, plastic sheeting, soap and jerrycans in Maridi, Ezo and Naandi in Western Equatoria.
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