Violence Continues To Disrupt Aid In Greater Upper Nile-OCHA Violence has continued to disrupt humanitarian aid to the displaced populations in Greater Upper Nile region says the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). 08 July 2015
By Jok P Mayom *JUBA, 06th July 2015 [Gurtong] – *According to the bi-weekly report released at the end of June, the office for the Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan says the security situation in Unity and Upper Nile states remains volatile as fighting continued in the past weeks. “An influx of internally displaced persons (IDP) into Bentiu PoC site from neighboring counties has led to facilities and amenities at the camp being over-stretched” it said. “In Upper Nile State, the situation in Malakal town and in the PoC site remains tense as fighting continues. Inter-communal tensions are also threatening the security of some locally recruited aid workers” said OCHA in its report. The UN office expresses regret of the continuity of the violence saying its Health partners in Wau Shilluk have reported that some 38,500 displaced people are in urgent need of clean water, sanitation and medical supplies. “Humanitarian access remains a challenge” OCHA decries. “Reports from Melut indicated that the town has been partially burned and destroyed, and assets have been looted”. “The reported looting and destruction of infrastructure, including health institutions, further limits access to services in states with already constrained health services due to destruction when the conflict began in December 2013”. “Health partners have reported a sharp increase in casualties due to fighting and are responding to the increasing needs.” However, extensive disruption of essential primary and secondary health care services due to the renewed fighting has aggravated the limited capacity for basic service delivery. According to OCHA, “Up to $500,000 worth of medical supplies have been lost, looted and burned since the resumption of heavy fighting late April”. Most of the health facilities in the conflict-affected states have remained non-functional thereby reducing access to much needed health care services. Partners reported 166 incidents of grave child rights violations in the country during the second quarter of 2015, affecting 4,184 children. A high number of these incidents have been reported in May in Unity State due to the ongoing fighting and displacement in the area. Children have been particularly affected, as reports indicated that some have been killed, raped, abducted or recruited to take part in the fighting throughout the state. “Fighting in Unity also resulted in attacks on schools. In May, three schools were reportedly vacated but 29 schools were being used for military purposes”. Despite access challenges, aid agencies continue to reach people in deep field locations with the innovative survival kits. The bags that include fishing kits, seeds, water purification tablets, mosquito nets, nutritious high-energy biscuits and kitchen utensils are designed for families of five members. More than 5,000 kits have been already distributed. Food insecurity in Greater Upper Nile Fewsnet reported that food insecurity has likely worsened due to the conflict in Unity State (Guit, Leer, Koch, Mayendit, and Panyijar counties) and Upper Nile State (Melut and Malakal counties). The conflict has displaced tens of thousands people in Unity State alone and limited the already low levels of trade and market activities, and prevented humanitarian assistance delivery. Some of the worst affected areas of southern Unity and Upper Nile State have not received any food assistance for one to two months. “Without access to food assistance, poor households in conflict-affected areas will experience increasing food deficits, and levels of global acute malnutrition and mortality will likely rise further” said the humanitarian bulletin. The reports also say that the nutrition situation remains above the emergency threshold of 15 percent, with about 80 percent of counties in Greater Upper Nile, Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Warrap and classified at critical nutrition levels. ------------------------------ [image: Bookmark and Share] <https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pub=xa-4a8952f0662ccc6f> Posted in: Home <http://www.gurtong.net/ECM/Editorial/tabid/124/ctl/CategoryView/mid/519/categoryId/1/Home.aspx> -- To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/southsudankob View this message at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/southsudankob/topic-id/message-id For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. 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