An Mi-26 helicopter delivers four tons of relief aid in South Sudan earlier this year. (All photos by Peter Martell / UNICEF)

2018-11-30 08:30 CET

Mission Possible: Getting aid to SouthSudan’s children affected by war

This coming week, Panalpina will assist UNICEF (the United Nations InternationalChildren’s Fund) for the sixth time by flying relief aid to Africa. The PanalpinaCharter Network is in final preparations for the flight in support of the respectedUN organization.

Same as last year, the flight – chartered and donated by Panalpina – will go toUganda, from where the relief goods will be trucked across the border to SouthSudan. Some of the relief goods will then likely be flown by giant UN helicopters

to remote regions in the country to help mostly children, women and families in acountry affected by one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

The following report was written by journalist Peter Martell earlier this year andshows how getting aid to the people who need it most requires extreme efforts.The report also impressively illustrates how every ton of relief goods makes a verybig difference to thousands of people who often have not had aid for years.

UDIER, South Sudan – For a moment, the sky goes dark. Stinging clouds ofdust are whipped up as the giant UN helicopter takes off.

On the ground, aid workers and residents of the remote South Sudanese townof Udier use the cargo the helicopter has dropped as a temporary shelterfrom the storm.

The Russian-made Mi-26 helicopter is the world’s largest, originally designedto carry heavy military kit. Here it is delivering four tons of aid.

“Hold on!” shouts nurse Gatluak Lual, as people cling to the boxes, includingspecial high protein food for malnourished children, packs of pregnancydelivery kits to help mothers give birth safely, spare parts to fix water pumpsand bales of mosquito nets.

“This will make a very big difference to the people,” said Lual, sweeping off alayer of dirt to read the labels on the tumbled box, after the wind calms withthe helicopter gone. “We have not had aid like this here for years.”

South Sudan is one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Civil warerupted in 2013, ripping the young nation apart. Millions of people have beenforced from their homes, and millions more are in need. Children areespecially suffering. Many areas have been effectively cut off from theoutside world almost entirely.

Unique airborne aid missions

Getting aid out to the people who need it most also requires extreme efforts.So the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, alongside partners from the World FoodProgramme, WFP, have developed what they call the Integrated RapidResponse Mechanism, or IRRM.

It is a complicated technical term for a mission with a simple focus; anairborne aid operation to drop in teams and tonnes of supplies into some ofthe most inaccessible and dangerous areas anywhere in the world.

Since the war began, hundreds of helicopter missions have provided aid formillions of the most vulnerable people.

“We target several areas at the same time,” said Selina Ayangi, a UNICEFteam leader for the mission to Udier. “That includes tackling severemalnutrition with mass screenings of children, and providing treatment withsupplementary feeding. For health, we give vaccinations, and for hygiene,clean water and sanitation kits.”

In the baking heat, the South Sudanese specialist in nutrition is organising along line of volunteers, tackling the heavy work of hauling the cargo throughthick scrubland from the helicopter drop zone.

“Logistics are a big challenge,” she said, as men carry chests of measles,tetanus and polio vaccines in giant cool boxes out of the burning sun. Withno power to refrigerate the several thousand precious vaccines, they must begiven out as soon as possible.

“It is a three-hour helicopter flight here,” Ayagi added. “We’re operatingwithout electricity or phone signal. If you forget something, or needsomething else, you just have to work with what you’ve got.”

The five-person UNICEF team includes nutritionists, a child protection officerand a community health expert.

The first helicopter drops the team and their kit, including tents, food andeven drinking water. They set up a base ready to support tens of thousands ofpeople, training local volunteers to not only help manage vast crowds butalso to assess for malnutrition and give injections of vaccines. They all mustbe ready to act as soon as aid is delivered days later via cargo helicopter.

After that, the team is on its own – until a recovery flight is sent to pull themout after around 10 days.

The missions require aid workers take considerable risks. At least a hundred

aid workers have been killed in South Sudan in five years of war. Dozens havebeen kidnapped. “The situation here now is calm,” Aynagi said. “But therehave been times we have had to evacuate when things have not been good.”

Staggering health needs

Udier, in the far northeast of the country, is outside government control. Thatmeans the isolated town is physically cut off by battle lines from trade withthe rest of the country. The UNICEF operating base is in the playground of thetown’s school. The building itself is roofless after damage in storms, withwalls covered in graffiti showing charcoal drawings of soldiers and war.

The people are not only exhausted by the war, weakened by years withouthealthcare, but are also struggling to support new arrivals seeking shelterand safety displaced by the violence. “Our population almost doubled withpeople fleeing from fighting,” said Chuol Kang Wuol, director of aidoperations for the local administration. “That has stretched us even more.”

Each mission is a microcosm of the crisis that South Sudan as a whole faces;staggering health needs, uncertain security, a lack of even the most basicinfrastructure, and hunger at such extreme levels experts have warned of thepotential to return to famine conditions declared in 2017. The missions arecarried out in collaboration with WFP.

Sometimes as many as 30,000 people will come from deep in the bush in thehope of supplies, which WFP delivers by literally pushing supplies out theback of airplanes. Tonnes of grain sacks thunder down, while crates of morebreakable cooking oil are dropped with parachutes attached.

But it takes more than food alone to build a life. Bringing so many peopletogether provides a good opportunity to provide a rapid delivery ofhealthcare. “People come for the food,” said Ayangi. “When they come toregister for that, then UNICEF offers support to those in need.”

Last year, UNICEF deployed teams on over 50 joint missions to locationsacross South Sudan. While the UN uses such operations in other conflictzones across the world, the South Sudan missions are unique in being theonly ones totally reliant on helicopters.

The queues begin soon after dawn. The long lines last for hours, snaking outacross the dirt airstrip, the only large open area for people to gather. Thismission, targeting around 9,000 people, is only a medium-sized.

At the head of the queues, UNICEF experts with support from local healthworkers and volunteers work without break to assess the needs and providewhat aid they can.

Some children have extended bellies and swollen ankles, while others havelight brown hair, all warning indicators of possible malnutrition.

Nyaduel Kuoch, aged 25, holds her six-month-old daughter Much Kor asvolunteers read off measurements on a sliding malnutrition assessment armbands. “We are struggling from a lack of food,” Kuoch said. “There is nohealthcare for my children.”

Children are given doses of de-worming pills, vitamin supplements and, ifthey are judged to be severely malnourished, packets of special formula foodto bring them back up to a healthy weight. Elsewhere, lines of mothers andchildren wait for vaccines, or health checks from medics.

At another table, in the shade of a baobab tree, social workers takephotographs of children who lost their parents in the chaos of war, and notedown as many details as they can remember to help try and identify them.Some parents may have fled the country, or have died in the fighting.

“Many children have become separated from their relatives in the war,” saidJohn Ruai, a child protection officer. “We’ll check with the national database ifwe can find any information to help reunite them with a family member.”

As the mission wraps up, basic supplies are handed out to mothers; cleanwater kits, including buckets and containers, purification tablets, soap, aswell as mosquito nets to help curb malaria.

"We need more help,” said 26 year-old Nyalol Yaoch, holding her third child,nine-day old Nyalat Buay. “When will you be back?”

When the helicopter arrives to take the team out, a crowd from thecommunity comes to say farewell. The helicopter whips up dust once again.As the helicopter shudders into the air, the last thing that can be seenthrough the storm are the lines of mothers, still standing and waving.

If you would like to donate to UNICEF's efforts in South Sudan, please visitthe UNICEF South Sudan site.

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