Hope persists despite conflict in South Sudan

Hope persists despite conflict in South Sudan

The impact of the recent attack on Melut in South Sudan's Upper Nile State will be grave. The rainy season has just started and all shelters and markets were razed to the ground. People sleep under trees with no shelter, medicine and food. Livelihoods were destroyed, property lost and more people are displaced and hungry. Compounds of aid agencies have been vandalized and looted and staff relocated to safer areas.

We were distributing non-food items, constructing shelters, providing clean and safe water, constructing latrines, preventing malnutrition in small children, providing fishing kits and distribution seeds and garden tools.

I feel very sorry for the children and the people of Melut. Aid agencies had invested a lot in terms of building their resilience, infrastructure and livelihood. Their lives were better but a lot of that has been shattered in two days.  The displaced people had come from other counties, but we reached people beyond here even.

Melut was doing well. It had stability and functional markets. But we still have hope that peace will come, people will settle and recollect their lives.