HIGHLIGHTS
South Sudanese refugees continue to arrive in Gambella at a daily average rate of 209 people. Akobo, Pagak and Pochalla are the main crossing points.
The total number of new arrivals from South Sudan since 15 December 2013 is now 211,214, including 208,079 in Gambella and 3,135 in the Benishangul-Gumuz Region near Assosa. 90% of the adult population are women and children and 19,349 are unaccompanied/separated children. As at the reporting period, the cumulative figure of the South Sudanese refugee population in Ethiopia reached 275,639, including 64,425 refugees that were in country pre-December 2013.
Following government approval of Pugnido II as the 6th camp site in Gambella, UNHCR and ARRA with input from partners, have come up with a draft Accountability Matrix assigning responsibilities to the different partners. The draft Accountability Matrix has been shared with partners for their inputs before it is finalized.
UNHCR distributed core relief items to all the 6,342 refugees at the Pagak entry point; 3,939 of them are awaiting relocation to Pugnido II while the remaining 2,403 need to undergo Level I registration prior to their relocation.
On 16 June, the Day of the African Child was commemorated in several of the refugee camps in memory of the schoolchildren killed in 1976 in Soweto, South Africa. This year’s theme was “Accelerating our collective efforts to end child marriage.”
World Refugee Day 2015 was successfully commemorated in all the five refugee camps and at Pagak transit center in the Gambella Region on 20 June. The President of the Gambella Peoples’ National Regional State, H.E. Mr. Gatluak Tut Khot, honored the commemoration with his presence and conveyed messages or peace, cooperation and mutual coexistence.
A four-person team from UNHCR’s Policy Development and Evaluation Service (PDES) undertook a mission to Gambella as part of its work to evaluate UNHCR’s response to the South Sudanese refugee emergency and see the strong points as well as areas of improvement in the response. The mission visited refugee camps and the Pagak entry point and held meetings with ARRA, UNHCR, NGOs as well as refugees.
A total of 19,527 of the refugees relocated from Leitchuor have been verified in Jewi camp and were all issued with new ration cards and the Proof of Registration.