South Sudan Humanitarian Bulletin Issue 10 | 28 June 2017

HIGHLIGHTS

• One year on from the declaration of the cholera outbreak in South Sudan on 18 June 2016, new cases continue to be reported.

• Early warning and mobilization of a large-scale, multi-sectoral humanitarian response have eased famine in Leer and Mayendit counties. However, an unprecedented 6 million people are now severely food insecure.

• Humanitarians continue to ramp-up their response to the needs of tens of thousands of civilians displaced in northern and central Jonglei.

• Humanitarian organizations encounter challenges accessing key locations in the Greater Equatoria region.

South Sudan’s cholera outbreak reaches one year mark

One year on from the declaration of the cholera outbreak in South Sudan on 18 June 2016, new cases continue to be reported, most recently in Ayod, Fashoda, Kapoeta East, Kapoeta North, Kapoeta South, Nyirol, Uror, Renk, Tonj East, Yirol East and Yirol West, counties, and the UN House Protection of Civilians (PoC) site in Juba. Suspected cases have been reported in Doro refugee camp, Maban County, and in Akobo County.

This is the longest, most widespread and most deadly cholera outbreak since South Sudan became independent. Cumulatively, 11,214 cholera cases including at least 190 deaths (Case Fatality Rate (CFR) 1.6 per cent) were reported in 24 counties in South Sudan from 18 June 2016 to 27 June 2017. The number of cholera deaths is being verified, and the number of cumulative deaths and CFR is likely to increase once this exercise has been completed. Children and teenagers have been most affected by the outbreak, constituting about 51 per cent of the cases, while women and girls constitute 52 per cent of the cases.

In the 2014 outbreak, 6,421 cases were reported, including 167 deaths, over eight months, while in 2015, the cholera outbreak lasted five months and affected 1,818 people, including 47 deaths, in three counties.

Humanitarian response eases famine, but food insecurity unprecedented

The Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan, Eugene Owusu, has welcomed the findings of the latest Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) data which highlight that early warning and the mobilization of a large-scale, multi-sectoral humanitarian response, have eased famine in Leer and Mayendit counties, and prevented it in Koch and Panyijiar counties.

“I applaud the humanitarian community for the rapid scale-up of humanitarian response in famine-affected and at-risk areas in Unity,” said Mr. Owusu. “We deployed teams to dangerous and difficult locations and faced many challenges along the way, including clashes which forced us to relocate aid workers and delay distributions. But we were not dissuaded, and our collective efforts ultimately prevented the catastrophe from escalating.”

The Humanitarian Coordinator, however, urged the international community and humanitarian actors not to become complacent, as an unprecedented 6 million people are now severely food insecure, including 45,000 facing catastrophic food insecurity in Leer, Koch and Mayendit in Unity, and Ayod in Jonglei, and 1.7 million in IPC Phase 4, on the brink of famine.

“Half of the people across this country are severely food insecure, we are facing the longest and most widespread cholera outbreak since South Sudan became independent, and the number of people internally displaced has topped 2 million,” warned Mr. Owusu. “These are the devastating consequences of conflict, which has taken a daily toll on the desperate civilians of this nation.”

Read more: HC press release -- http://bit.ly/2sYAFNb; IPC report (May 2017) -- http://bit.ly/2tWrpXL