Highlights
On 19 March WFP obtained from the Government of South Sudan the non-objection letter for the use of the corridor from Gambella, Ethiopia to Upper Nile and Jonglei states, South Sudan. This will allow access to people displaced by the current conflict in the two states and to refugees hosted in Maban area. Road convoys are expected to depart from Gambella this week, to meet the needs of refugees in Maban and IDPs and conflict-affected people in Jonglei and Upper Nile states, who have suffered delays with March distributions as a result of WFP’s inability to the corridor until now. About 1,300 mt of cereals have also been locally purchased in Renk, Upper Nile and will be distributed to refugees in Maban this week.
Given the current overland inaccessibility of most Unity, Jonglei and Upper Nile states, WFP has started a series of airdrops of food assistance to remote areas of South Sudan, prioritising communities in the direst food security conditions. The first airdrop took place on 14 March on Maban (Upper Nile state), dropping about 100 mt of food. A second round of airdrops delivered another 215 mt from Juba to Ganylel. Overall WFP plans to feed 250,000 people with 15 days ration, to other 15 locations until the end of April, through the use of two Iluyshin-76 and helicopters.
As of 21 March, WFP has reached 472,189 people displaced as a result of the crisis. This includes food assistance to IDPs, conflict-affected groups and critical nutrition support. One mobile distribution team deployed to Ganylel (Unity) has completed the distribution of 15 days food rations to 24,900 IDPs. Another mobile distribution team has been deployed to Akobo (Jonglei), and has already started the registration process.
Emergency Food Security Assessments (EFSA) are currently being conducted in Unity, Upper Nile, Jonglei states as well as in Awerial County and UNMISS PoC areas in the other seven non directly conflict affected states, in cooperation with FAO and about 10 NGOs partners. Due to security reasons, data collection has been completed only for 14 out of 34 sampling locations so far. Findings will be tentatively available by the end of April. Food Security Monitoring System (FSMS) data collection has been completed in the seven non directly conflict affected states. Data entry and analysis has started. FAO, Word Bank, NGOs partners and the National Bureau of Statistics will participate in the analysis of both EFSA and FSMS data.