South Sudan: Humanitarian Access Snapshot (November 2024)

In November, humanitarian operations in South Sudan continued to face significant challenges due to escalating violence, threats against personnel and assets, bureaucratic impediments, and logistical constraints. Thirty-five access incidents were reported.

Attacks and robberies targeting humanitarian personnel and convoys increased in central Equatoria and Unity states, four vehicles belonging to humanitarian organizations were attacked by armed criminals in Juba, with cash stolen at gunpoint. A humanitarian contracted convoy was ambushed along Bentiu-Yida Road, resulting in a gunshot injury to one truck driver. In Pochalla, armed personnel forcibly boarded a humanitarian-chartered aircraft and directed it back to Juba, interrupting its scheduled rotation to Lankien, Nyirol County.

In Lakes State, two INGO health workers were arrested and detained for one week, causing disruption to the provision of health services. Similarly, in Western Bahr El Ghazal, authorities detained staff from a company contracted by an INGO to undertake school construction projects, delaying the project implementation.

Increasing forms of bureaucratic access impediments, including interference by local authorities in recruitment processes, persisted in Ayod and Fangak (Jonglei State) as well as Maiwut, Maban, and Renk (Upper Nile State).

Flooding disrupted critical supply routes between Lakes, Western Bahr El Ghazal, and Warrap states. Several supply routes within Jonglei State, Upper Nile State, and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area remain impassable.