South Sudan: Disaster unfolds in world's newest nation - Daily News Analysis

A humanitarian tragedy is unfolding in a remote corner of South Sudan, the world's newest nation — and one of its poorest — as it prepares to celebrate its first anniversary of independence.

Meet the world's youngest nation: South Sudan

Emergency teams admit to being overwhelmed by an influx of 1,20,000 refugees from fighting which continues to rage across the border in Sudan's Blue Nile State. The Khartoum government has been attacking African tribal groups who became trapped on the wrong side of a line on a map when the two countries split last July. Tens of thousands have flooded across in recent weeks and more are thought to be on their way.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the government offensive, which has targeted followers of the Sudan People's Liberation Army - North, an offshoot of South Sudan's ruling party based in the Blue Nile State.

There are no independent figures to verify the extent of killings as no journalists or aid group has gained access to the area in the recent bout of fighting.

Relief groups say that long-standing predictions of impending castrophe are being borne out. The current mortality rates in makeshift camps in the swamplands south of the border is running at 3 per 10,000 per day for adults, triple the threshold for an emergency. The rate for children is 4 per 10,000, or double the emergency level.

UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, which is in charge of the relief operation, is widely accused of failing to act fast enough to provide the refugees with sanctuary.

The refugee camps sit on a flood plain between two rivers fed by rainfall in the highlands of Ethiopia. It was known that the area floods every year and the UN has been fiercely criticised for failing to address the abject conditions facing the swelling numbers of displaced.

UN officials say the refugee agency was "ambushed" by the sheer number of people crossing the frontier. But relief agencies have warned for months that this would happen. The Daily Telegraph has seen documents advising the UN of the impending problem of a large influx dating from as far back as February. "This is a full-blown emergency," says Voitek Asztabski of Medecins Sans Frontieres. "And a full-blown emergency demands a full-blown response. The UN did not have enough capacity, enough contingency or enough resources."

The refugees — weakened by months on the run, hiding in forests and caves and forced to eat leaves — now languish in shocking conditions branded "unacceptable" and "terrible" by every relief worker there. "We are running from crisis to crisis, fighting overwhelming odds," says Peter Struijf, who heads the Oxfam team at Jamam camp, where conditions are worst. "I haven't prayed for a very long time, but, recently, I've been spending a lot of time on my knees."

An experienced source close to the UN, who wishes to remain anonymous, says: "Everything and everyone is stretched to capacity. Decisions have been too slow. I find it astonishing that these people are still in Jamam. These scenes should not be happening. I have never seen anything like it."

Oxfam and MSF say Maban County of Upper Nile State is the worst imaginable location for refugee camps. They warn of an impending health disaster. Diarrhoeal disease and malaria are rife. A cholera outbreak is considered a very real danger as pit latrines flood into camps.

For months the relief agencies have been demanding the urgent and total evacuation of Jamam. The UNHCR acknowledges the scale of the problem and is now scrambling to move thousands of people from flooded sections. But the refugee agency has been heavily criticised for what other relief groups say has been poor and late decision making.

"I think it is absolutely top priority that large numbers of people are evacuated," says Peter Struijf, of Oxfam. "This is not a safe place for them to be. We need someone at a higher level to make a strategic decision to solve this problem."

Safe drinking water is in woefully short supply. Bore holes have yielded little and heavy rains have already begun to engulf the sprawling refugee camps with toxic, stagnant water.

Four years ago, Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, was indicted by the International Criminal Court on counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Two years later, charges of genocide were added to his indictment.

However, the government of South Sudan also faces accusations of inflicting harm on the displaced. It has reportedly blocked plans to relocate the camps, citing political and security reasons.

It has also refused repeated requests from aid groups to allow one of its oil companies in the region to provide them with a hydrological survey idenitifying water sources.

Tara Newell, the emergency coordinator for MSF in Jamam, said: "There are overwhelming problems, but there's been a completely underwhelming response. This was all predictable. It was, in fact, all predicted."

However, the refugees blame Khartoum for their plight. The tribal chief of the Ingessena tribe, Nassir Efendi Badi el-Tom, now a refugee himself, said: "We are mountain people. The Ingessena people just want to go home and find peace and finish this terrible war. Our hearts are broken. I don't blame the UNHCR. I blame Omar al-Bashir because if he hadn't shot and bombed us, we would have avoided all this. If he is not arrested, there will be no solution."

— Jonathan Miller's report on the crisis on the South Sudan border will be broadcast tonight on Channel 4 News at 7pm