HIGHLIGHTS
About 494,000 people are reported to have been displaced by the crisis, including 401,200 internally displaced people and close to 86,100 refugees in neighboring countries.
Food, non-food items, water and sanitation, and health are major needs and there is a concern that the food security situation will only worsen and continue into 2015 if fields cannot be planted before the end of the current season.
Relief items have been sent to Awerial and CRS is in the process of procuring relief supplies for an initial 12,000 households.
Government officials are returning to Bor this week and have asked CRS to visit and conduct an assessment of the situation there as a prelude to providing humanitarian assistance to the people they expect will return shortly. CRS hopes to support the people of Jonglei. Reconciliation must be a priority for the government, the Church and humanitarian organizations if the country is to have any chance of a stable peace settlement. The major newly reported concentrations of displaced people are in Central and Eastern Equatoria, Jonglei, and Unity states. On January 13 and 18, CRS moved an emergency response team to Awerial County to assess and respond to water, sanitation, and non-food item needs in the area. The following items were also sent by road for distribution:
1) Mosquito Nets 500 Pcs
2) Buckets 300 Pcs
3) Latrine Slabs 600 Pcs
4) Water bladders 2 Pcs each for 5,000 liters
5) Pick axes with handles 100 Pcs
6) Spades with handles 255 Pcs
7) Machetes 70 Pcs
8) Wheel barrows 23 Pcs
9) Bamboo 1,600 bundles
10) Soap 80 boxes
11) Pure water sachets 2,000 sachets
On January 21, CRS sent a second team to Awerial to support preparations for distributions of shelter kits, hygiene kits and kitchen sets, as well as mosquito nets, bed sheets and other items. CRS is procuring items for 12,000 households and will add to that as the situation demands. Plans are also in place to drill new wells to accompany soap distributions for 3,400 households to complement work done by Oxfam. Stocks of sorghum, lentils and oil from the should be moved up to support emergent food needs in Jonglei or for people displaced from Jonglei.