Eight die of Cholera in South SudanAt least eight cholera patients, including five children, have died in South Sudan after walking for hours under the sun to find medical help, following cuts in United States aid that led to the closure of health centres.
The charity organisation, Save the Children, said the deaths happened last month in Jonglei State and were linked to recent decisions by U.S. President Donald Trump to stop aid to several countries, including South Sudan.
According to the group, the patients walked for about three hours in nearly 40°C heat to get help after the local clinics were shut down. The walk was too much for them, and they died before reaching a hospital.
“There should be global moral outrage that the decisions made by powerful people in other countries have led to child deaths in just a matter of weeks,” said Christopher Nyamandi, Save the Children’s country director in South Sudan.
Nyamandi said three of the children who died were under the age of five.
Before the cuts, Save the Children was helping 27 health centres in the area. Now, seven have been completely shut, and 20 are only partly working due to lack of funds.
The U.S. government had earlier announced it was pausing its foreign aid to review if the money supported President Trump’s “America First” policy. Since returning to office in January, Trump’s administration has cancelled over 90% of USAID contracts, which funded health programmes around the world.
Health experts are warning that these cuts could lead to millions of deaths in the coming years from malnutrition, malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS, and other preventable diseases.
The U.S. State Department has not yet responded to the report.
Save the Children also confirmed that transport services that used to carry sick people to hospitals have stopped working, making it even harder for people in remote areas to get help.
Nyamandi and other aid workers are calling for urgent international attention to the crisis to prevent more deaths.
