Medair South Sudan @ 30
By Steve This year marks 30 years since Medair first started working in what is now South Sudan. Back in 1992, it was Southern Sudan and Medair was responding to the needs of a population suffering from a civil war fought between the notionally Christian south and the Muslim north. Move forwards 30 years and it is a land that won independence, but has not enjoyed many years of peace as a result. The idea of an “emergency” lasting for 30 years is hard to fathom. The circumstances may be a little different now, but the basic needs are, one suspects, still rather ominously the same. When we think about humanitarian emergencies we tend to think of places where armed conflict or natural disaster have disrupted the normal way of life for people, where infrastructure is damaged, or where people are forced to leave their lives of relative comfort for a life of uncertainty. Maybe these last for a few months or years; enough time to restore some semblance of order once the crisis has