Highlights
- South Sudan’s Minister of Health advised partners to treat the recent rise in suspected cholera cases as a cholera outbreak, and respond accordingly. UNICEF’s Cholera Task Force is fully operational, and measures are being taken to enhance water, sanitation, and hygiene – over 100,000 liters of sewage were collected from UN House POC on 18 July.
- UNICEF programming is implemented in a way to reduce risks of gender-based violence, which is a heightened concern in times of insecurity.
Humanitarian Overview
One week after the signature of the ceasefire that brought an end to the hostilities, the situation remains quiet but tense. While many of those internally displaced by the fighting have returned to their homes, after few days of decrease in IDPs, on 18 July there has been an increase in the number of arrivals at UN Tomping and Don Bosco displacement sites, with approximately 14,945 remain displaced.
Humanitarian Response
A high level meeting was conducted on 18 July under the chair of Hon. Minister of Health to review the current cholera status and response. Partners were advised to treat the current scenario as a cholera outbreak and respond accordingly. The Ministry of Health has released a press statement on the outbreak of diarrheal diseases. The technical team, under the chair of the Health cluster, met with UNICEF, WHO, Medair, SSRC, MSF and other partners to discuss the outbreak response planning. UNICEF’s Health section is holding discussions with the cluster to define roles of various partners in the outbreak response.
The Child Protection Sub-Cluster also met on 18 July 18 enhance coordination of the response based on partners’ capacity and resources.