Medecins Sans Frontieres severely criticized the United Nations on Wednesday, saying its mission in South Sudan refused to improve conditions in a compound housing 21,000 displaced people before the upcoming rainy season, according to dpa. The humanitarian organization said it had repeatedly called on UN officials to move people living in low-lying, flood-prone areas of the Tomping UN peacekeeping base in the South Sudanese capital Juba. Officials at the UN Mission to South Sudan (UNMISS) have taken no action despite the fact that heavy rainfall is coming with the onset of the six-month-long rainy season, charged MSF (Doctors Without Borders). "The UNMISS decision not to improve conditions in Tomping is shameful," said Carolina Lopez, MSF emergency coordinator. "In the first rainfall of the season 150 latrines collapsed, mixing with floodwater. People are living in natural drainage channels as there is no other space and there are 65 people per latrine." MSF said that diarrhoea and respiratory and skin infections already account for 60 per cent of illnesses treated at the camp, and flooding will worsen the situation leading to an epidemic of waterborne diseases. -- SPA 21:50 LOCAL TIME 18:50 GMT تغريد
