South Sudan: Humanitarian Snapshot (May 2023)

During this reporting period to the end of May, the people of South Sudan continued to suffer from acute humanitarian needs driven by conflict, food insecurity, disease outbreak and climate impact. As of 31 May, over 89,000 people, mostly South Sudanese, were registered crossing the border from Sudan to South Sudan since the fighting erupted in Sudan on 15 April. Most of the returnees entered through Renk, Upper Nile State, with several thousand arriving in Pariang of Unity State, Aweil North and Aweil East in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, Raja in Western Bahr el Ghazal State and the Abyei Administrative Area. Partners reported increasing humanitarian needs among returnees at the Renk transit site in Upper Nile and the Wadwill transit centre in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, underscoring that the situation will worsen without a response scale-up. Cross-border trade and humanitarian corridors have been disrupted by the conflict in Sudan and breaks in the food supply chains have increased the prices of food and commodities in the northern counties, resulting to heavy economic impact on the people. An estimated 7.8 million people are facing Crisis (IPC Phase 3) or worse acute food insecurity, with 43,000 people in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5) in Akobo, Canal/Pigi and Fangak counties of Jonglei and Leer and Mayendit counties of Unity in the projected lean season from April to July. Clashes erupted between communities in the Malakal Protection of Civilians (PoC) site in Upper Nile, with one person killed, several others injured and at least 100 people relocated to safer areas within the PoC. In May, nine measles cases with two deaths were recorded among refugees and returnees in Renk County. From January 2022 to May 2023, at least 6,138 suspected measles cases, including 59 deaths were reported across the 10 states.