A mother gave birth to a deformed girl on July 15,2021. The mother is originally from from Mayom County; the father, from Leer County. Both parents live in Rubkona Town. This is just the latest of many such deformed births. They are strongly believed to result from the oil-caused contamination of the environment that is pervasive in Unity State.

According to the information provided to the South Sudan’s Environment and Climate Change Network (ECCN), the child was born at home. Once the parents realized what shape their child was in, they took it to a local healthcare center.

The child’s right arm is said to lack fingers, a wrist, forearm and elbow. Her left arm bears a worrisome white spot. The ECCN’s efforts to confirm these facts by contacting the girl’s parents were not successful.

As detailed in a large number of scientific reports, the number of malformed babies born each year has steadily risen in Unity State since the early 2000s. The prime suspect for these deformities is the oil pollution issuing from the Unity, Tharjath and Polach oilfields.

ECCN was recently founded to coordinate efforts by its members – CSOs – to identify, investigate and palliate such deformed births. The ECCN’s thrust is getting the government of South Sudan to better its supervision of oil companies’ operations in the country, so to improve their handling of oil spills, leaks and wastes; and of waste chemicals.

See attached Photo of the Child:

Email address: environmentandclimatechange.ss@gmail.com