South Sudan: UN Agencies Reach More than Half a Million People with Life-Saving Aid
Porters unloading humanitarian supplies from the Mi26 helicopter in Jiech, South Sudan. Photo: WFP/George Fominyen
30 September 2014 – Two United Nations agencies have reached more than half a million people, including 100,000 children
under the age of five, in the most remote and conflict-hit areas of South Sudan with life-saving supplies and services.
Using a combination of airdrops and airlifts, the joint emergency mission carried out by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) delivered food assistance and nutrition supplements, well as health support, learning materials and water, sanitation
and hygiene supplies.
Both agencies also provided nutrition screening and treatment, as well as information and messages on nutrition,
according to a news release issued today. They also assist with reunification for children who are separated from their families, or unaccompanied.
“These missions reach people who have been fleeing for their lives,” said Jonathan Veitch, UNICEF Representative in
South Sudan. “They have lost or left everything behind, and their relief that someone has finally come to help, and not
harm, is palpable.”
With support from logistics and telecommunications specialists, the teams provide a lifeline to desperate communities in
the three conflict-affected states – Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity.
The teams stay in each location from 8 to 11 days, carrying all their own supplies, including food, water and tents.
Based on their assessment of the needs of the local population, which can be up to nearly 50,000 people per mission, the
teams radio for supplies to be delivered by air.
Missions can be delayed by bad weather, which disrupts flights and causes dirt airstrips to flood, and insecurity is a
constant challenge, the agencies noted. But once a team has reached an area to establish a humanitarian response,
non-governmental partners are frequently able to remain and provide ongoing assistance.
“Our staff deployed across South Sudan, in gruelling and often dangerous conditions, show great determination to serve
the people of South Sudan with life-saving food and nutrition assistance,” said Joyce Luma, WFP Country Director in
South Sudan.
Of the more than 1.8 million South Sudanese who fled their homes because of the conflict that began in mid-December
2013, over 1.4 million remain displaced within the country. Most are sheltering in remote and hard-to-reach areas, and
more than half of them are children.
There are also some 97,000 civilians continuing to receive shelter at UN sites around the country.
The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said that more than 9,000 displaced civilians have moved voluntarily from its Tomping Compound in the capital, Juba,
to a protection-of-civilians site adjacent to the UN House since it opened in June. The number of uprooted still living
in the Tomping site now falls under 4,000.
Yesterday, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of UNMISS, Ellen Margrethe Løj, visited Bor, the
capital of Jonglei state, where she met with government officials, including the caretaker governor and community
leaders representing some 2,700 displaced people living in UNMISS protection sites outside Bor Town.
This was her third visit to a state capital outside Juba since she took on her position earlier this month.
ENDS