South Sudan: Response scale-up for highly food insecure areas - Situation Report No. 6 (As of 30 April 2021)

HIGHLIGHTS

• In April, Food Security and Livelihoods (FSL) Cluster partners reached some 372,000 people with food assistance in the six priority 1 food insecure counties of Pibor, Akobo, Aweil South, Tonj East, Tonj North and Tonj South. This represents 82 per cent of the 450,000 people targeted.

• Close to 8,000 children under age 5 and over 4,000 pregnant and lactating women were reached with nutritional assistance through 96 static nutritional facilities, 28 outreach sites and 12 stabilization centres across the six counties.
In Aweil South, nutrition sites rely on ponds or stagnant seasonal rivers for their water.

• Health Cluster partners provided more than 71,522 consultations to people in April, compared to 28,000 consultations in March. The increase is attributed to an improvement in security and access in the greater Tonj area. The cluster continued to expand access to health services through the re-establishment of critical static primary health care and mobile service delivery.

• More than 142,000 people were reached with water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. Close to 2,000 standard hygiene/water kits were distributed to people. Ten nutrition facilities were supported with access to clean water. A total of 55 water points were rehabilitated.

• A total of 31,478 people including 7,765 children received life-saving child protection (CP) services in April. Genderbased violence (GBV) partners reached 8,899 people in April with various activities such as psychosocial services at Women and Girls Friendly Spaces (WGFS), case management, dignity kits and community outreach. At least 3,288 women and girls accessed different psychosocial support (PSS) activities at the WGFS and 3,607 received dignity kits.
About 4,000 dignity kits have been pre-positioned in Pibor.

• Protection monitoring indicates an increasing trend of adolescent boys and girls working at marketplaces and living and working in the streets in urban areas, a phenomenon likely to have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 related school closures, food insecurity, poverty and other persistent factors. These children are at increased risk of violence, exploitation and abuse.

• While clusters have scaled up to meet the urgent needs of people, gaps remain. The WASH Cluster identified gaps in all six counties. In Akobo, the Nutrition Cluster warned that stock of ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF) and CSB++ was running low. In Aweil South, FSL, health, nutrition, Shelter/NFI and WASH clusters reported gaps. A shortage of dignity kits was consistently reported in April.

• Road conditions deteriorated in April, but main routes were still accessible. Insecurity in Jonglei led to the postponement of coordinated convoys to the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) and Akobo County, affecting the ability to preposition stocks while roads are still accessible.

• UNMISS patrols in the greater Tonj area stopped, following the expiration of its Sharing of Information (SOI) in midMarch 2021. UNMISS were unable to conduct regular patrols to the greater Tonj area since the SOI cannot be renewed. The Governor stated that South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF) forces patrolling insecure areas of the greater Tonj area will guarantee the security of communities.