JUBA—South Sudan’s Central Equatoria State government on Friday launched a cleaning campaign at the Juba Protection of Civilians site (POCs) camp 3 to combat the spread of cholera.
This initiative follows a significant rise in cholera cases recorded by the state’s Ministry of Health within the camp.
Deputy Governor of Central Equatoria State, Paulino Lukudu Obede, who launched the campaign on behalf of the state government, attributed the accumulation of garbage in the camp to the rise in cholera outbreak.
“The garbage accumulated here is the reason for the increase of cholera in the camp,” Lukudu told reporters in Juba on Friday.
Lukudu emphasized that maintaining cleanliness in public areas like the POC will reduce the risk of cholera.
He assured the community that the state government will renovate some of the toilets in the POC that are currently unusable.
The camp currently has 57 toilets, but only a few are operational.
“As the government of the state, we are going to renovate 21 toilets to help the community,” he said.
For her part, Minister of Health for Central Equatoria State, Najwa Juma Mursal, called on both state and national governments to address issues concerning the hospital at the camp after the community voiced concerns about the lack of health facilities.
Najwa emphasized the importance of resolving this situation, pointing out that the state government is responsible for establishing a county hospital, given the camp’s population of 38,000.
Najwa stated that the government is actively lobbying organizations to provide assistance to the people at the Protection of Civilians (POC).
Meanwhile, Juba County Commissioner Emmanuel Tete stated that the cleaning campaign is a necessary step in addressing the cholera outbreak.
“The authorities are here to tackle the issue of cholera with the cleaning campaign,” Tete said.
He added that to eradicate cholera, “we need to clean the camp.”
Tete also emphasized that preventing the spread of cholera requires proper hygiene practices.
He urged that community to wash their hands with soap and clean water to stop the spread of cholera.
He advised people that cleaning is the first step in halting cholera, especially during this season.
“As the commissioner, I am not here to clean people’s houses, but I encourage you to clean your residences, and the authorities will collect garbage from designated collection areas,” he said.
Early this week, a campaign aimed at vaccinating over 300,000 people against cholera has commenced in the hotspot county of Rubkona, Unity State, in a vital step to curb the ongoing outbreak, bringing the total number of counties where the vaccination campaign has been conducted nationwide to four.
South Sudan declared a cholera outbreak in October 2024. As of 7 January 2025, more than 17,581 cases have been reported nationwide, with a case fatality rate of 1.5%.
With support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, over 1.3 million doses of vaccines have been secured to tackle the cholera outbreak in hotspots nationwide. The vaccination campaign in Juba started on 8 January and will run for seven days.
