A young girl watches government soldiers in Kuek, once a populated border town that has been turned into a military barracks with just 300 civilians, most of whom are the army’s family members, in northern Upper Nile state, South Sudan. (Credit: Sam Mednick/AP.)
YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon - Children from South Sudan in refugee camps in neighboring Sudan are facing a difficult choice - either they start reciting the verses from the Quran, the Muslim holy book, or they die of hunger.
According to Aid to the Church in Need, the children are being forced to pray Muslim prayers as a prerequisite for getting food rations.
An ACN worker, who asked not to be named, said South Sudanese children in refugee camps in Sudan were facing “a terrible situation.”
“We have heard stories where children are conditioned to say Islamic prayers before [being] given food. This is not right. These children are Christian. They should be respected as such,” said the worker.
Conflict in South Sudan began around its founding in 2011, when the country - predominantly Christian - gained independence from Muslim-majority Sudan. Despite high hopes for the nation at its birth, political corruption and ethnic divisions overwhelmed the underdeveloped nation, causing famine and violence.
For the past three-and-a-half years, a civil war has been raging between those loyal to President Salva Kiir and those loyal to former vice president Riek Machar.
The violence has pushed refugees into neighboring countries, including Sudan.
The ACN worker also said the government of Sudan was barring aid agencies from providing much needed assistance to South Sudanese refugees in Sudan, who are estimated to number over 400,000 people.
But the government’s capacity to provide nourishment is limited, with monthly rations for families lasting just about two weeks.
According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, about a third of South Sudanese people are now food insecure, with statistics indicating that food security has deteriorated in the world’s newest country since the conflict brook out in 2013.
The UN body estimates that at least 2.4 million people are facing emergency levels of food insecurity.
Hunger and conflict have chased at least 1.9 million people from the country since the beginning of the civil war, with Uganda alone hosting at least one million South Sudanese refugees.
