Race against time to stop disease outbreaks in Tigray refugee camps

After a visit to Village 8 refugee camp in eastern Sudan, home to over 16,000 Ethiopian refugees from Tigray, Islamic Relief aid worker, Aya Elfatih said:

“The smell of defecation was overwhelming. There are only 58 latrines for 16,000 refugees and not surprisingly, they are already full to the brim and overflowing. Very soon, there will be flies all over the place and there are widespread concerns that that there will be an outbreak of waterborne diseases.

“Not to mention COVID-19. There are very few handwashing facilities so COVID prevention is a huge challenge.

“I cannot stress enough how important it is to get clean water and sanitation supplies into the camps. In fact, it’s a race against time to stop the diseases, which could have a devastating impact on the already weak and vulnerable refugees.”