South Sudan inaugurated its first National Population-Based Cancer Registry at Juba Teaching Hospital on Thursday in a move aimed at improving the collection of cancer data and strengthening the country’s response to the growing disease burden.
The inauguration ceremony brought together health experts and partner organizations. The registry is expected to help health authorities collect, analyze and report information on cancer cases, including the types of cancer affecting the population, their distribution and treatment outcomes.
Dak Doup Bichok, the caretaker health minister, said the country had for years struggled with a lack of reliable national data on cancer, making it difficult to understand the actual scale of the disease.
According to figures cited by the minister from the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, South Sudan recorded an estimated 8,124 new cancer cases, 5,128 cancer-related deaths and 11,645 people living with cancer within five years.
However, Bichok said the figures were modelled and largely informed by data from neighboring countries rather than comprehensive records collected directly from patients in South Sudan.
“We cannot continue depending on information from other countries to understand the health challenges facing our own people,” he said. “More importantly, it will help the Ministry and our partners make informed decisions about cancer policies, planning, resources, allocations, investment and cancer prevention and treatment.’
For his part, Dr. Albino Amum, Director of the Cancer Registry at Juba Teaching Hospital, said the country had been managing and treating cancer patients but had not adequately documented the information for national planning and international reporting.
“But our data has not been used for the country. Our data has not been captured by the international community,” Amum said.
He explained that the population-based registry would collect information from public and private clinics, health centers and other health facilities through active data collection by trained staff.
Amum said the registry would initially be based at Juba Teaching Hospital, following recommendations by the African Cancer Registry Network and the International Agency for Research on Cancer after a visit to Juba in February 2026.
Amum identified limited funding, a shortage of trained cancer registrars, fragmented health information systems and poor communication among stakeholders as some of the challenges facing the initiative.
“A cancer registry alone cannot treat patients. While we are developing cancer registry, also we are working to establish cancer services,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Tolbert Geewleh Nyenswah, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s country representative for South Sudan, described the inauguration as an important achievement for the country’s health sector.
He said reliable cancer data would help authorities understand how many people are diagnosed, which cancers are most common and which groups are most affected.
“The registry’s lasting value will depend on sustained government support and government leadership, trained staff, reliable reporting from health facilities across the country, strong data quality and confidentiality of our patients, and the continued use of its findings in policy and practice,” he said.
Nyenswah added that Africa CDC was working with South Sudan’s Ministry of Health, the Division of Non-Communicable Diseases and the National Public Health Institute to strengthen the country’s capacity to address non-communicable diseases, including cancer.
The inauguration brought together government officials, health professionals and international partners, including representatives of the World Health Organization and other health organizations.
Minister Bichok said the government was committed to ensuring that the registry remained operational and contributed to improving the country’s health system.
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