24th January, 2011
Southern Sudan votes on independence
After voting in their historic referendum, the people of South Sudan are celebrating their decision to secede from the north of the country and make their way as Africa's newest independent state. 98.83% of votes cast were in favour of independence and the formal transition to a separate state will take place in July.
At this exciting but tense time, AMREF is ready to work with other health organisations to provide health care and support for people returning from the north and neighbouring countries back to Southern Sudan.
Peter Ngatia, AMREF's Director of Capacity Building, said: "This is already attracting a lot of attention as it may turn out to be a human crisis. We are positioning ourselves within the UN Humanitarian Contingency Plan to act as required within the health and water, sanitation and hygiene sectors."
As well as our emergency activities, AMREF runs a number of ongoing projects in Southern Sudan to train health workers and provide safe water and better sanitation. In a region which has suffered severely from conflict and poverty, we are helping to improve access to health care to the people who need it most. You can find out more about this work here.
Facts on Southern Sudan
- Southern Sudan has a maternal mortality rate of 2056 per 100,000 mothers
- 250 of every 1000 children in Southern Sudan die before their fifth birthday.
- A clinical officer attends to an average of 80 patients every day
- Since 2008, AMREF has trained 76 community midwives, 46 at the Maridi Institute and 30 at the Lui Institute
- Southern Sudan requires an additional 2,000 community midwives and 1,070 clinical officers to meet the health needs of communities
This page will be updated below with updates on the current situation. Check back here later for more news.
17 March 2011
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes in the Darfur region of Sudan following an outbreak of violence between government forces and armed militias. Over 60,000 people have arrived in displaced people's camps in Darfur since January.
Meanwhile, tensions between the South Sudan government and the authortites in the north of Sudan have risen. Officials have accused Omar Bashir's Khartoum administration of training and supplying militia groups in the South to undermine the government there, ahead of July's expected declaration of independence. More details are available here.
7 February 2011
The results of the referendum have been announced, with almost 99% of the vote in favour of independence. On 9 July 2011, independence will be formally declared, six years after the implementation of the peace deal which followed years of civil war.
21 January 2011
Today's report by AFP is pointing to an overwhelming vote for secession in Southern Sudan’s recent referendum.
AFP reported that, “State and county referendum officials around the south showed that 2,224,857 votes for separation from the north had already been returned by Wednesday evening.”
The report continues that these returns “Comfortably exceeded the simple majority of 1.89 million votes needed on the 96-percent turnout of the 3,932,588 registered voters.”
19 January 2011
(With information from IRIN)
The referendum vote on the future of Southern Sudan is over, but the region still faces numerous challenges.
Key challenges are the major humanitarian and development problems that exist in the South.
More than 180,000 Southerners have returned from the North in the past three months, adding pressure to communities already struggling to cope, according to figures released by Georg Charpentier, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan.
“Every effort is being made to ensure that the basic needs of the returnees are met, including food, access to water and sanitation, blankets and water,” Charpentier said.
AMREF is part of the UN’s humanitarian coordinating committee participating in both the health and the water and sanitation emergency groups.
AMREF, in collaboration with our UN and NGO colleagues, is working to address the people in Southern Sudan's urgent needs. Most have nowhere to go and are being placed in camp situations - similiar to refugee or internal displacement camps.
The good news is that the camps, while growing every day, are in place, and AMREF and other NGOs are there ensuring people have access to health services, clean water and sanitation.