We cannot afford to have another Omran Daqneesh or to have more aid workers held at gunpoint. Innocent civilians and the people striving to protect them deserve more.

JUBA, South Sudan -- The headlines will fade, but the needs will not. South Sudan is a country on a precipice, and all of our help and attention is needed now, and in the months to come, if this new country is to realize its bright future.

Like many other foreign aid workers and locals I meet, what he really wanted was an American take on the man presently dominating U.S. politics, an explanation of the larger-than-life and stranger-than-life figure who, even in South Sudan, has the ability to suck the air out of any room.

Across the globe, war and conflict disproportionately impact women, and South Sudan is not an exception. Rape, torture and other types of sexual and gender-based violence are daily occurrences.

The peace agreement that President Salva Kiir finally signed on August 26 - that will hopefully ensure an end to South Sudan's current conflict - includes justice provisions that offer a chance to break a decades-long cycle of brutal abuses that South Sudanese have endured for too long.