Highlights
• The Meningitis A campaign started on 15 March and will continue until 25 March. The final target is 5.7 million individuals between 1 and 29 years. UNICEF is supporting country-wide social mobilization, vaccine provision and cold chain strengthening.
• In the past two weeks, 15,500 people were provided with sustainable access to safe water through the drilling or rehabilitation of boreholes across the country, including four boreholes damaged in Pibor.
• In the past two weeks, nutrition teams from Bentiu PoC have undertaken response missions to Lutjop, Kadet and Kuach in Guit County; Buaw in Koch County; Leer in Leer County; Mayom and Mankien in Mayom County; and Thong and Ding-Ding in Rubkona County. Mobile outpatient therapeutic programme (OTP) services were established in Kuach and Kadet by CWW with support from UNICEF. OTP services in Guit have also reopened, however they are also still mobile due to the lack of physical structures and human resource capacity as well as security concerns.
Currently 62 out of a total of 72 sites that should operational in Unity are now functioning.
• Though similar missions out of Bentiu PoC, community-based organizations have been supported to restart education for 2,025 children, including establishment of temporary learning spaces, provision of supplies and training of volunteer teachers.
Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
Over 2.3 million people have fled their homes since conflict broke out in December 2013 in South Sudan. This includes 1.69 million people displaced inside the country. Of these, 191,253 IDPs are sheltering in UNMISS Protection of Civilian (PoC) sites including 119,647 in Bentiu, 40,448 in Malakal, 27,950 in Juba UN House, 2,289 in Bor, 700 in Melut and 219 in Wau.
The security situation remains tense and unpredictable across the country. In Upper Nile, security is particularly fluid and tense. The IDPs that relocated to Malakal town remain there either in institutions such as schools or in houses that do not belong to them. The Government has worked to move them to two locations to improve access to services and avoid occupation of personal empty houses.
The Inter-Cluster Working Group estimates as many as 50,000 people displaced from surrounding areas have sought refuge with hosts in Wau. Humanitarian actors continue to receive unverified reports of grave child rights violations.
Reports from Mboro indicated that approximately 8,000 IDPs are camping in a church and a school or with relatives and friends with no food or other basic services. The situation of IDPs has been worsened by diarrheal diseases, malaria and skin diseases. Despite repeated attempts, no humanitarian actors have reached Mboro.
Following the fighting in Pibor, the least 2,500 people sought shelter in the UNMISS base while thousands have been displaced to the bush or to Gumuruk and Vertet. Most remain displaced due to a fear that the conflict may erupt again if the consensus on governorship is not resolved at national level, including 1,734 still in the UNMISS base. Unexploded ordnance remains a concern. UNICEF and partners remain on the ground providing multi-sectoral services to those affected.