Medicine Sans Frontier or MSF said the tens of thousand of South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia’s Gambella region were facing terrible conditions including lack of water, food, poor sanitation and infectious measles.
MSF in a statement on Friday, lamented limited humanitarian assistance in the camps for covering dire needs.
It said at least one thousand new refugees arrive in Ethiopia daily, with many suffering from respiratory infections, diarrhea and malaria.
The statement added that children were at risk with hundreds already under treatment for measles.
MSF head of mission in Ethiopia Antoine Foucher said ‘We estimate that the mortality rate in children under five years remains above emergency levels in Letchuor camp, due largely to high rates of malnutrition and measles’.
He said the provision of assistance improved, but it was hardly keeping up with increasing influx of refugees.
Dr Foucher said it was critical to boost the response to improve health conditions ahead of the rainy season.