International Medical Corps has been working in South Sudan since the mid-1990s, nearly 20 years before a national referendum in 2011 led the southern-most states of Sudan becoming an independent South Sudan later that same year.
Tensions within the new country broke into armed conflict in December 2013, claiming tens of thousands of lives before a fragile peace agreement took hold in the summer of 2015. Hostility continues to simmer, hampering efforts to improve public health standards in a country that has one of the world’s highest public infant mortality rates. In February, a famine was officially declared in two parts of Unity State. While an increase in aid helped lift the official famine classification in June, the food security situation remains desperate and the number of people at risk of starvation has increased. Potential for disease is extremely high with large numbers of displaced people and sharply reduced access to health care. International Medical Corps currently operates in five of the country’s 11 states, providing emergency health, nutrition, mental health and protection services.