South Sudan

Photo by Ahmed Satti / Anadolu Agency / Getty

There has been a civil war going on in South Sudan since 2013, due to a conflict between the government and those who oppose it. This tension is over political power struggles, competition over resources, and ethnic tensions. This war has resulted in the displacement of millions of people and has been declared a humanitarian crisis.

There has been a widespread of violence, specifically massacres, sexual assault, and child soldiers. Innocent children are being utilized as soldiers in their military to stop this war. There is no data on the exact number of child soldiers in this country because of the lack of crime reported and poor birth registration. Girls used by their military are disproportionately experiencing sexual abuse and out of the formally released children 12 percent are girls.

This conflict has also led to extreme food insecurity with 7.2 million people in a food crisis, 2.4 million people at risk of famine if they don’t receive aid, and 1.4 million children are suffering from acute malnutrition. Not to mention, there are 483,000 malnourished pregnant or lactating women with over 108,000 of them at risk of famine-like conditions. According to UNICEF, 1 in 10 children die before their fifth birthday making this country have the highest maternal mortality rate in the world.

The number of out-of-school children is rising; 2.2 million children in 2016 and 2.8 million children in 2020 were unable to access a quality education. Only 1 in 4 South Sudanese children report having eaten before coming to school. Despite the efforts of the United Nations to establish a peacekeeping mission, the country remains in a devastating situation.

It is absolutely dire that we respond as a unified front to aid these innocent civilians who are constantly fighting a devastating quest for survival.

Learn more about South Sudan:

Concern. “Hunger in South Sudan: Understanding A Decade of Food Crisis | Concern Worldwide.” Netlify, 27 January 2022, https://concernusa.org/news/hunger-in-south-sudan/. Accessed 22 June 2023.

Harrop, Elizabeth. “IN SOUTH SUDAN Children Women.” UNICEF, https://www.unicef.org/southsudan/media/8191/file/UNICEF-South-Sudan-Situation-Analysis-2021.pdf. Accessed 22 June 2023.

Humanium. “Children of South Sudan.” Humanium, 8 September 2020, https://www.humanium.org/en/south-sudan/. Accessed 22 June 2023.

Murekio, Murugi. “CHILDREN.” UNICEF, https://www.unicef.org/southsudan/media/7446/file/UNICEF-South-Sudan-2020-Annual%20Report-March-2021.pdf. Accessed 22 June 2023.