My mission was relatively straightforward: to follow the joint UNICEF and WFP Rapid Response team going to Pagak, a small village on the south eastern edge of South Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, in Upper Nile state.

Q&A with Ettie Higgins the Cork-born woman who is UNICEF’s Deputy Representative in South Sudan. Ettie has worked for UNICEF for over a decade in countries like Somalia, Syria and the Central African Republic.

In the distance neat lines of white shelters appear on the landscape of Jordan’s barren eastern desert. This vast site is Azraq refugee camp that opened at the end of April. Built to house Syrians still fleeing the more than 3-year old conflict in their country, the camp now hosts some 6,000 people.

Before conflict broke in South Sudan last December, Nyagonar was in school finishing 4th Grade. She dreamed of being a teacher but her ambitions now resume to peace and seeing her mother again.

Nyamach was a happy, high-achieving, girl who loved school and was top of her class. Now the 17-year-old from South Sudan is picking up the pieces of her life following a series of horrific events that she has experienced since violence broke out in her country last December.

Six months on, despite challenges, there are promising signs of recovery across the affected regions – thanks to the massive outpouring of global support, combined with the remarkable resilience of the affected Filippino population.

When violence broke in South Sudan in December 2013, 14-year-old Tut Deng had to flee home with his mother to find safe shelter at the Tomping camp for Internally Displaced People (IDP), on the outskirts of Juba.

Nine-month-old Ayen is one of the youngest citizens in the world’s newest country, but despite his age he has lived enough hardship for a lifetime.

I’m standing in an empty room, when she runs in. A young woman with tears streaming down her face, she is struggling to carry a boy in her arms. His arms and legs are limp. When she sets him down on the bench, we see that he is convulsing and foaming at the mouth. The … Continued

One in every 10 people in South Sudan have been forced from their homes. A staggering number – and one that is rising every day. These are just some of their stories:

Garang, 12, is one of the estimated half a million children in South Sudan who have been displaced by violence. Here is his story in his own words.

Over 100 days of violence in South Sudan has left a quarter of a million children at risk of severe acute malnutrition unless urgent humanitarian supplies reach the most vulnerable citizens in the world’s youngest nation.