Sudan - Complex Emergency Fact Sheet #3, Fiscal Year (FY) 2011

Note: The last fact sheet was dated February 18, 2010.

KEY developments

• With less than three months until July 9, 2011—the date when Southern Sudan will officially become the independent Republic of South Sudan—populations continue to return from northern Sudan to the ten states of Southern Sudan and the Three Areas of Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile, and Abyei Area. Returns have continued at a steady but slow pace since late January 2011 following the referendum, relative to the high rate between the end of October 2010 and the beginning of January. Nearly 331,000 people returned to Southern Sudan and the Three Areas between October 30, 2010 and April 5, 2011, including approximately 43,000 to the Three Areas and nearly 288,000 to Southern Sudan.

• On February 27 and 28, clashes between Misseriya ethnic group members and local police occurred in Todach town–located nearly 20 km north of Abyei town—resulting in an unconfirmed number of deaths and injuries and displacing an estimated 20,000 individuals from Abyei Area, according to the U.N. Approximately 70 percent of individuals who left Abyei town in response to the violence in late February had returned to their homes as of April 5, according to the Southern Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission. USAID/OFDA grantee GOAL and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)-Switzerland continue to operate mobile clinics to meet the health needs of newly displaced individuals in the region.

• On March 28, the Government of Sudan (GoS) permitted USAID/OFDA grantee Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to resume operations in West Darfur. The GoS suspended CRS operations at the end of January, preventing the organization from distributing emergency food assistance and implementing humanitarian assistance activities, including health, nutrition, shelter and settlements, agriculture and food security, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions. CRS and the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) plan to deliver food rations to approximately 200,000 beneficiaries between March 29 and mid-April.