HIGHLIGHTS
• Nearly 4,500 internally displaced people departed the Bentiu Protection of Civilians site in May.
• Over 310,000 people are receiving humanitarian assistance and protection in southern Unity.
• Thousands remain displaced in Yambio and Gangura.
• Violent incidents against aid workers increased in May.
• Health partners investigate an outbreak of a haemorrhagic fever syndrome in Aweil.
Aid reaches people beyond Bentiu
Thousands of people have received humanitarian assistance in Guit, Koch, Mayom and Rubkona counties in recent months as partners based in Bentiu took advantage of the dry season to extend aid to parts of Unity previously inaccessible by road.
About 103,400 people have been reached with food rations distributed outside the Bentiu Protection of Civilians (PoC) site - including in Bentiu Town, Ding Ding, Kuach, Nhialdiu, Nimni, Bil, Kadet and Jazeera – since February, while seeds and fishing kits have been provided to about 7,400 households in Guit County and 10,000 in Koch County. Nutrition surveys have been conducted in Guit and Rubkona in May and support for acutely malnourished children and pregnant and lactating mothers is ongoing.
Emergency shelter materials and basic household items – a top priority in many locations where people’s homes have been damaged or destroyed – were provided to 13,350 households in Koch, Mayom, Guit and Rubkona counties by the end of May.
Four health facilities that stopped operating when conflict began in December 2013 were reopened in Guit County in May and partners provided staff and medical supplies. A cold chain facility for routine immunization was established and vaccines were delivered at the health facility in Nimni payam in Guit County in May after two years without immunization services. About 3,600 patients and about 1,850 children under age 5 were vaccinated against measles through 15 mobile health clinics in Nhialdiu, Ding Ding and Thong payams in Rubkona County.
Education services have been revamped. Over 18,000 children, including 8,500 girls, have been enrolled in schools as a result of 12 back-to-learning campaigns, and 45 temporary learning spaces for children have been established. In Nimni, four schools have been reopened for the first time since the conflict began and over 1,200 children have been enrolled. In Mankien (Mayom County), materials for 2,480 children have been distributed at three schools and pupils will receive food through the School Feeding programme. Emergency education supplies for 3,000 children have also been prepositioned in Nhiadiu.
Humanitarian partners have focused on ensuring assistance and protection reaches the most vulnerable. Twenty cases of unaccompanied, separated and missing children were identified and documented in Nhialdiu, Nimni and Kuach in May for follow-up, and profiling of people with special needs has been conducted in Kuach, Nimni, Mankien, Kaljak, Bauw, Nhialdiu and Ding Ding to inform a tailored response.
The expansion of the response has been facilitated by common services.
Light Base Camps have been established to accommodate humanitarians based in Nimni and Nhialdiu, funded by the Common Humanitarian Fund, and six key roads have been cleared of unexploded ordnance (UXO), connecting Bentiu with Nhialdiu, Kaljak, Koch, Kadet, Mayom and Leer, facilitating safe movement for civilians and humanitarians.
Increasing movement of civilians
In May, nearly 4,500 internally displaced people (IDPs) departed the Bentiu Protection of Civilians (PoC) site, bringing the PoC population to about 95,000 at the end of the month. Most of those departing - mainly adult men and women – reported that they planned on engaging in farming activities in Rubkona, Guit and Koch counties. Many noted that the elderly and children from their families remained in the PoC.
From February to May, partners biometrically registered more than 31,800 people in Bentiu and Ding Ding in Rubkona County, and Nimni in Guit County. Of these, about 5,800 people changed their ration cards from the Bentiu PoC site.