Schools in the country also closed for prolonged periods during the Covid pandemic, setting back children’s already basic education.
Dr Kathy Branthwaite, an MSF paediatrician working at Renk Hospital in Sudan’s south, said that the hospital saw an increase in patients towards the end of last week, reaching 27 admitted for paediatric care.
“Premature babies are regularly dehydrated and intense heat only weakens them further,” she said. “Many children are coming in with signs of advanced dehydration.”
Due to overcrowding in the hospital, staff constructed a tent to accommodate more patients, but the extreme conditions pushed temperatures to over 50C inside.
“It was unbearable for patients, staff and caretakers,” Dr Branthwaite said, adding that a lack of sufficient clean water represents a “real danger” to refugees living in “dire conditions”.
South Sudan ‘sitting in a perfect storm’
As global warming accelerates the frequency of heatwaves, developing countries like South Sudan are most vulnerable to the impacts.
The 2023-24 El Niño phenomenon, one of the strongest on record, is exacerbating these already challenging conditions.
El Niño has caused unusually warm temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, which has resulted in disrupted weather patterns and high temperatures.
The phenomenon coincides with wider climate change, with the two issues pairing together to cause dry conditions and erratic rainfall, which each affect crop production and worsen disease outbreaks.
“The main thing is, that it’s an additional kind of temporary warming on top of the long-term warming trends,” Professor Richard Betts MBE, Met Office Fellow and Chair in Climate Impacts, University of Exeter, told the Telegraph.
“So we are warming the earth ourselves by emitting greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels and deforestation, but El Niño adds to that, which makes it even worse.”
Humidity in South Sudan means that the heat poses more of a risk.
“When it’s humid, the heat stress risk is higher, because humidity stops your body cooling itself by sweating. That’s why this heatwave is of concern,” said Professor Betts.
“Most people would find it impossible to function on a normal day-to-day basis in those kinds of temperatures.”