Læger uden Grænser (MSF) siger, at myndighederne i Afrikas nyeste nation forhindrer humanitær nødhjælp til 120.000 fordrevne, som skjuler sig i malaria-befængte sumpe.
Many of them fled into the bush amid fighting in Jonglei state between the army and rebels over the last month, reports BBC online Friday.
They do not have access to safe drinking water, food or medical care, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said.
South Sudan says Khartoum backs several rebel groups – charges it denies. In turn, Sudan says the South supports militias on its territory.
Jonglei state has been hit by widespread ethnic violence since South Sudan became independent from Sudan in July 2011, with much of it taking place in Pibor county.
South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has accused the rebels in Jonglei state of using civilians as human shields.
MSF says the only two hospitals in the whole of Pibor county have been looted (plyndret) and vandalised in the recent fighting, so there is no healthcare available for any of the displaced people apart from a basic MSF health post in Gumuruk.
“Immediate action is required to avoid catastrophe,” Bart Janssens, MSF’s director of operations, said:
“The area in Pibor county where the population is hiding will flood during the imminent rainy season. This will not be a place where people can remain alive.”
He said that from the charity’s years of experience of Jonglei it knew that without medical care mortality rates would rise rapidly, with people dying of pneumonia (lungebetændelse) and other respiratory diseases, malaria and diarrhoea.
Repeated requests by MSF to the authorities to travel to the area where people are hiding in the bush have been denied, the charity said.
Following decades of conflict with Khartoum, South Sudan is among the least developed countries in the world.
