Highlights
• 15 December marked the second anniversary of the conflict in South Sudan which has become an unrelenting crisis for children. Over one million children have fled their homes. Children across the country remain at risk from acute malnutrition, an exacerbated disease burden and grave rights violations, with over 400,000 having been forced out of school.
• UNICEF staff deployed to Leer Town and Thonyor, Leer County from 1-9 December. These were the first UNICEF missions in the area since fighting erupted in May 2015. The nutrition situation in both locations was alarming with proxy global acute malnutrition (GAM) rates over 30 per cent, double the emergency threshold. UNICEF is supporting nutrition partners to immediately re-establish outpatient therapeutic programme (OTP) and infant and young child feeding (IYCF) services.
• UNICEF continued to support primary health care services in Bentiu, Bor, Juba and Malakal PoCs and Mingkamen IDP site with 56,886 consultations provided during the reporting period, including 25,813 (45 per cent) for children under 5. This year, UNICEF and partners have provided 713,651 primary health care consultations to conflict-affected people.
• UNICEF is responding to the influx in Mingkaman IDP site and continued displacement in Western Equatoria, ensuring the provision of safe water and other essential services and, in the case of Western Equatoria, supporting the state Ministry of Education to reopen affected schools.