When MSF launched an emergency intervention in Tambura, South Sudan, in December 2021, the level of devastation was clear – 80,000 people had been displaced, a significant proportion of the community had been brutally killed, and the looting and destruction of the only hospital meant that people had no access to medical care. The conflict in Tambura, which largely ran along ethnic lines, began in early 2021 but escalated significantly between June to September, and quite literally decimated the population.

A retrospective mortality survey carried out by MSF in March 2022 found an average of 5.5 deaths in 10,000 people each day over a period of nine months. Many people living in displacement camps still haven’t found their loved ones, while others know their family members were killed, but feel too unsafe to go retrieve their bodies.

As part of MSF’s emergency intervention in Tambura, our team began providing essential healthcare, including vaccinations and maternity care. A weekly cargo plane brought supplies for the community and MSF also provided clean water, and began rebuilding and refurbishing the hospital in Tambura. However, after all the trauma the community had experienced, one of the biggest needs was mental health services.

Living in fear, experiencing and witnessing extreme violence, and huge uncertainty for the future are factors that continue to prey on the minds of those displaced in and around Tambura. Without an appropriate outlet and space to process traumatic experiences, the symptoms can deepen, become worse, and in some cases manifest themselves in physical symptoms.

To address the mental health needs of the population in Tambura, MSF decided to provide comprehensive community-based mental health services. The mental health team began working in and around the displacement camps to discuss the mental health problems many people were experiencing, to normalise speaking about them, and provide outlets for those in need of support. This included one-to-one counselling sessions, referral pathways for those in need of further treatment or medication, and group psychosocial health sessions.