Wau Shilluk | |
---|---|
Village | |
Country | South Sudan |
Government | |
• Type | Republic |
• President | Salva Kiir Mayardit |
Elevation | 550 m (1,800 ft) |
Population | |
• Estimate () | 50,000 |
Time zone | UTC+3 (East Africa Time Zone) |
Wau Shilluk is a village of 50,000 located in the Upper Nile state of South Sudan. Many who reside in Wau Shilluk are IDPs in need of refuge due to the recent civil war which has ravaged much of the land. Living conditions in the town are grim. Many of the residents live in small tents constructed from tarps. During the rainy season they live knee deep in water leading to contamination and recently a cholera outbreak. Along with the problems of flooding and poor housing, the populace also faces the threat of severe malnutrition. Farmers displaced by the civil war have been unable to planet crops leading to a food shortage in the country. [1] Many of the people now rely on food distributed by UNICEF and the United Nations, however it does not seem to be enough and Shilukians explain they are unable to feed their entire family. Food imported by these groups is often looted by soldiers and rebels before it is able to make it to the civilians. It's estimated nearly 50,000 South Sudanese children will be lost this year unless food is properly distributed throughout the land. [2] Many humanitarian groups are calling for more food and supplies in order to aid the situation. Unfortunately more aid will not be given until an official famine declaration is made. In 2015 several school children were kidnapped by forces loyal to Johnson Olony with the intention of their being forced to serve in the armed forces. [3]
South Sudan declared their independence from Sudan in 2011 with hopes of peace and independence. However, the past three years have been filled with internal fighting and increased poverty. Fighting has removed thousands of people from their homes. Many of these refugees are now residing in Wau Shilluk; which was not ready for the sudden influx. Due to inadequate sewage and drainage systems, the recent rainy season has flooded the fresh water reserves with waste; prompting a cholera outbreak. Cholera is an infection of the intestine which gives the afflicted diarrhea. If not treated, cholera can be fatal within hours. During July 2014 Medecins Sans Frontieres teams in Upper Nile state treated 904 patients for cholera. [4] As of August 10, 2014 there were 894 cases reported with 17 deaths In Wau Shilluk South Sudan due to cholera, today the Mott is providing health care with support from IMA world health through the Rapid result fund. [5]
The Wau Shilluk inhabit Southern Sudan with a population of about 500,000, majority of them have converted over to Christianity, while little follow traditional religion, and even small numbers have converting to Islam. [6]
The Shilluk language is uniformly spoken throughout all half million of these people. The country is broken up into north (Gar) and south (Iwak); within the north and south there are around 100 different ethnic clans or groups.
Agriculture is a way of life for these people where main crops consist of harvesting and consuming beans, simsim, maize, and sorghum. The Shilluk have thrived on fishing in the Nile River and surrounding tributaries fueling their diet of eating seafood.
Culture, morals are passed on orally from generation to generation, which is why majority of traditions have been lost. One tradition not lost is marriage, which is the main goal in the lifetime of the Shilluk. It is an old fashion approach where word of mouth slowly reaches the ears of those dominant in the family. The finalization of the marriage entails a price of 10 cows or 30 sheep and goats to the family of the bride.
The Dinka people are a Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan. The Dinka mostly live along the Nile, from Mangalla-Bor to Renk, in the region of Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile, and the Abyei Area of the Ngok Dinka in South Sudan.
Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) was a consortium of United Nations agencies and approximately 35 non-governmental organizations operating in southern Sudan to provide humanitarian assistance throughout war-torn and drought-afflicted regions in the South. Operation Lifeline Sudan was established in April 1989 in response to a devastating war-induced famine and other humanitarian consequences of the Second Sudanese Civil War between the Sudanese government and South Sudanese rebels. It was the result of negotiations between the UN, the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) to deliver humanitarian assistance to all civilians in need, regardless of their location or political affiliation. This included over 100,000 returnees from Itang in Ethiopia in 1991. Lokichogio was the primary forward operations hub for OLS.
The Shilluk is a major Luo Nilotic ethnic group that resides in the northeastern Upper Nile state of South Sudan on both banks of the Nile River in Malakal. Before the Second Sudanese Civil War, the Shilluk also lived in settlements on the northern bank of the Sobat River, close to where the Sobat joins the Nile.
The famine in Sudan in 1998 was a humanitarian disaster caused mainly by human rights abuses, as well as drought and the failure of the international community to react to the famine risk with adequate speed. The worst affected area was Bahr el Ghazal in southwestern Sudan. In this region over 70,000 people died during the famine.
On 3 July 2007, flash floods during Sudan's rainy season devastated much of the country's central, southern, and western regions. The Sudanese government referred to the floods as the "worst in living memory".
A large-scale, drought-induced famine occurred in Africa's Sahel region and many parts of the neighbouring Sénégal River Area from February to August 2010. It is one of many famines to have hit the region in recent times.
The Shilluk Kingdom, dominated by the Shilluk people, was located along the left bank of the White Nile in what is now South Sudan and southern Sudan. Its capital and royal residence were in the town of Fashoda. According to Shilluk folk history and neighboring accounts, the kingdom was founded by Nyikang, who probably lived in the second half of the 15th century. A Nilotic people, the Shilluk managed to establish a centralized kingdom that reached its apogee in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, during the decline of the northern Funj Sultanate. In the 19th century, the Shilluk were affected by military assaults from the Ottoman Empire, resulting in the destruction of the kingdom in the early 1860s. The Shilluk king is currently not an independent political leader, but a traditional chieftain within the governments of South Sudan and Sudan. The current Shilluk king is Reth Kwongo Dak Padiet who ascended to the throne in 1993.
The 2010 Nigerien floods were floods across Niger which left over 111,000 people homeless. Niger was already suffering acute food shortages following prolonged drought in the Sahel region. As of 24 August 2010, at least 6 to 8 people had died. The Niger river was pushed to its highest levels in 80 years. The floods subsequently spread along the River Niger into Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin over the next few months. Later storms also brewed up in the CAR, Morocco and northern Algeria.
South Sudan, officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the west by Central African Republic. South Sudan's diverse landscape includes vast plains and plateaus, dry and tropical savannahs, inland floodplains, and forested mountains. The Nile River system is the defining physical feature of the country, running south to north across its center, which is dominated by a large swamp known as the Sudd. South Sudan has a population of 12.7 million. Juba the capital and largest city.
Occurring between July 2011 and mid-2012, a severe drought affected the entire East African region. Said to be "the worst in 60 years", the drought caused a severe food crisis across Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya that threatened the livelihood of 9.5 million people. Many refugees from southern Somalia fled to neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, where crowded, unsanitary conditions together with severe malnutrition led to a large number of deaths. Other countries in East Africa, including Sudan, South Sudan and parts of Uganda, were also affected by a food crisis.
Melut County is an administrative area of Upper Nile State in the Greater Upper Nile region of South Sudan.
Ethnic violence in South Sudan has a long history among South Sudan's varied ethnic groups. South Sudan has 64 tribes with the largest being the Dinka, who constitute about 35% of the population and predominate in government. The second largest are the Nuers. Conflict is often aggravated among nomadic groups over the issue of cattle and grazing land and is part of the wider Sudanese nomadic conflicts.
The South Sudanese Civil War was a multi-sided civil war in South Sudan between forces of the government and opposition forces. In December 2013, President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar and 10 others of attempting a coup d'état. Machar denied trying to start a coup and fled to lead the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO). Fighting broke out between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and SPLM-IO, igniting the civil war. Ugandan troops were deployed to fight alongside the South Sudanese government. The United Nations has peacekeepers in the country as part of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
Nyal Town is located in the Panyijar County of Unity State, in the Greater Upper Nile region of South Sudan. The town is known for the effects of extended fighting from the South Sudanese Civil War, leading to exceptionally poor humanitarian conditions including destruction of infrastructure, forced displacement, starvation, and sexual violence.
Since 2016, a food insecurity crisis has been ongoing in Yemen which began during the Yemeni Civil War. The UN estimates that the war has caused an estimated 130,000 deaths from indirect causes which include lack of food, health services, and infrastructure as of December 2020. In 2018, Save the Children estimated that 85,000 children have died due to starvation in the three years prior. In May 2020, UNICEF described Yemen as "the largest humanitarian crisis in the world", and estimated that 80% of the population, over 24 million people, were in need of humanitarian assistance. In September 2022, the World Food Programme estimated that 17.4 million Yemenis struggled with food insecurity, and projected that number would increase to 19 million by the end of the year, describing this level of hunger as "unprecedented." The crisis is being compounded by an outbreak of cholera, which resulted in over 3000 deaths between 2015 and mid 2017. While the country is in crisis and multiple regions have been classified as being in IPC Phase 4, an actual classification of famine conditions was averted in 2018 and again in early 2019 due to international relief efforts. In January 2021, two out of 33 regions were classified as IPC 4 while 26 were classified as IPC 3.
In the early months of 2017, parts of South Sudan experienced a famine following several years of instability in the country's food supply caused by war and drought. The famine, largely focused in the northern part of the country, affected an estimated five million people. In May 2017, the famine was officially declared to have weakened to a state of severe food insecurity.
In 2017 a drought ravaged Somalia that has left more than 6 million people, or half the country's population, facing food shortages with several water supplies becoming undrinkable due to the possibility of infection.
Aweil South County, sometimes called Paliet, is an administrative area in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state, in the Bahr el Ghazal region of South Sudan, bordering Warrap State to the south. It is located in the southeastern part of NBGs. It is also known by the name Paliet, and one of the counties consisting of three major Dinka tribal groups: Ajak, Boncuai and Kongdeer. It was founded in 2000 and headquartered in Boncuai in a place called Mangar-Gier. In 2004, the headquarters were shifted to Malek Alel in Ajak. It is bordered to the north by Aweil East and to the west by Aweil Centre, to the south east by Gogrial State, and to the southwest by Western Barh el Ghazal state respectively.
The 2022 Sudan floods saw the figure for flood-affected people in Sudan had exceeded the figure for 2021, rising to 314,500. From 2017 to 2021, there were 388,600 people affected by floods annually.
Throughout 2024, the population of Sudan suffered from severe malnutrition and man-made famine conditions as a result of the Sudanese civil war beginning in 2023, primarily in Darfur, Kordofan, and neighboring refugee-taking nations such as Chad. Famine conditions were caused in part by deliberate attempts by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to siege and loot cities with civilians trapped in them, and by both sides blocking off supply routes to allow food and humanitarian aid to flow through.