SOUTH SUDAN / BLUE NILE REFUGEES

Bombings in the Blue Nile region have cause people to flee to South Sudan's Doro refugee camp in Upper Nile State in search of food and shelter. More than 25,000 refugees live in the camp and over half of the new arrivals are children. UNHCR

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:52
• Production Date: 4 January 2012
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - UNHCR
• Subject Topical: PEACE AND SECURITY; HUMANITARIAN RELIEF; REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS; HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
• Geographic Subject: SOUTH SUDAN
• MAMS Id: U120104a

Description

STORY: SOUTH SUDAN / BLUE NILE REFUGEES
TRT: 2.52
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 16 DECEMBER 2011, MABAAN DORO REFUGEE CAMP, SOUTH SUDAN

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, Luka preparing a mosquito net
2. Wide shot, a family riding on a donkey to get water
3. Wide shot, refugee women arriving in the camp with belongings
4. Med shot, woman next to a cooking point with her dog
5. Med shot, Luka's children
6. Med shot, Luka seating with his children
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Joshua Luka, Blue Nile refugee:
“We were carrying my daughter for about three hours and she died. After two days her mother started suffering from injuries of the stampede, combined with malaria she contracted on the way. After 15 days she also died.”
8. Wide shot, Luka preparing a mosquito net
9. Wide shot, refugee boy eating from a an empty pan
10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Joshua Luka, Blue Nile refugee:
“There is no wild food here, people tried getting wild food from the bush but there was nothing.”
11. Med shot, small girl carrying a baby and a kid as they arrive
12. Med shot, Mireille Girard UNHCR talking to refugees
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Mireille Girard, Head of Office, UNHCR South Sudan:
“And they have arrived with very limited foods, no water, they arrived in very difficult conditions. The road is very difficult to go through. They are tired. They are hungry. They are sick, so basic facilities are being established by humanitarian workers. A number of NGOs are here, and a number of UN agencies. Its still at early stage, we are still trying to beef up the services as quick as possible and provide sufficient water, health and sanitation facilities as well as food and non food item.”
14. Various shots, air plane being unloaded
15. Med shot, refugee children having a meal
16. Wide shot, the only water point in Doro camp
17. Med shots, Doro camp streets with refugees carrying water and goods

Storyline

Joshua Luka and his family along with thousands of others fled from their homes in the Blue Nile region of Sudan last September after multiple bombings by the Sudanese army.

The bombardment caused panic among the fleeing refugees, both Joshua’s wife and daughter were injured in the stampede.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Joshua Luka, Blue Nile Refugee:
“We were carrying my daughter for about three hours and she died. After two days her mother started suffering from injuries of the stampede, combined with malaria she contracted on the way. After 15 days she also died.”

His daughter was buried along the way, and his wife near Doro Camp, about 40 km from the border with Sudan.

But Luka has four other children to shelter and feed and basic living conditions in this region are difficult. The area is arid and offers little to help people get by.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Joshua Luka, Blue Nile refugee:
“There is no wild food here, people tried getting wild food from the bush but there was nothing.”

The population of Doro Camp is more than 25,000 and over half of the new arrivals are children. UNHCR registered all new arrivals and provided some 19,000 refugees with basic survival items and food.

Distributing relief items is difficult even in the best of conditions, but the logistical challenges are greater still with hundreds of refugees crossing into the Upper Nile State daily.

SOUNDBITE (English) Mireille Girard, Head of Office, UNHCR South Sudan:
“And they have arrived with very limited food, no water, they arrived in very difficult conditions. The road is very difficult to go through, they are tired, they are hungry, they are sick. So basic facilities are being established by humanitarian workers. A number of NGOs are here, and a number of UN agencies. Its still at early stage, we are still trying to beef up the services as quick as possible and provide sufficient water, health and sanitation facilities as well as food and non food item.”

Approximately 285 tons of relief supplies and thousands of tents, enough for 60,000 people, were flown in from Kenya and the United Arab Emirates and then trucked to refugee encampments in Upper Nile and Unity states.

UNHCR is laying the groundwork for a second camp, called Jamman, capable of receiving 15,000 refugees currently stranded in the village of El Foj near the Sudan border. The agency and its partners are also racing to set up tents and address health, food and educational needs before the spring, when the rains will begin.