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Bentiu Protection of Civilians Site: Life Inside South Sudan’s Largest Displacement Camp

In December 2013, fearing for their lives, thousands of people in South Sudan fled in unprecedented numbers to existing UN bases for protection. During some of the most extreme periods of violence, the UN opened its gates to civilians, and as the conflict extended, these bases transitioned into Protection of Civilians (PoC) sites, with humanitarian actors providing emergency services. The biggest one is in Bentiu, which nowadays hosts around 97,300, most living in congested and undignified living conditions, with inadequate water and sanitation.
The peace agreement (Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan) signed in 2018 renewed debates around returns of displaced people to their villages. In July, UNMISS publicly announced the start of the handover process of all five PoC sites across the country, to be then transferred into IDP camps. It means management and security responsibilities will be transferred from the UN to the national government. In Bentiu, MSF teams have been listening to concerns raised by patients and other community members, mostly about safety and security conditions once the UN no longer protect the site.

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