Good afternoon ladies and Gentlemen. I
have with me today Mr. Ramachandran , the Deputy Head of UNICEF Office
in Sudan and Dr. Ahmed Al Ganainy from WHO office in Sudan to brief you
on the recent yellow fever outbreak. We have also après release from WHO
on this issue in the room.
I'll start with my briefing first. I'll
start with the activities of the SRSG.
SRSG
-During the three-day visit to Juba, from 13 to 15 November, the SRSG held a series of meetings with senior official of the Government of Southern Sudan. He met with Mr. Salva Kiir, the First Vice-President of the Sudan and the President of the Government of Southern Sudan. He met also with Mr. Riek Machar the Vice President of the GoSS, Mr, Justin Yac and Minister of Cabinet Affairs. The SRSG met also with the Speaker of the legislative Assembly, Mr. JAMES Wani Igga and the legislative Assembly members. Discussions focused on the CPA implementation, including Institutions building. The SRSG met also with the SAF and SPLA commanders and discussed with them the security of humanitarian workers in the areas where LRA activities has been reported, particularly the safety and security of de-miners. The SRSG met also Mrs. Rebecca Garang during his visit.
-The SRSG attended also the CJMC meeting. I'll brief you on the main issues discussed and decisions reached during that meeting shortly.
-The SRSG left today for a one day trip to South Darfur where he will be meeting with Mini Minawi and other SLM/A commanders. The SRSG will discuss with them a range of issues, including the participation of the Movement in the 7th round of Abuja talks scheduled to take place on 21 November. He intends to meet with Abdulawhid Nur at a later date.
CJMC MEETING:
The 13th CJMC Meeting was held on 15 Nov 05 in Juba, chaired by the Force Commander Maj Gen Fazle Elahi Akbar. The main decisions of the CJMC were: the parties will forward their respective comments on the final draft of the report to the Ceasefire Political Commission that will be circulated by the Secretary prior to the next CJMC meeting -It is to be recalled that although a presidential decree was signed in October to establish the CPC, this commission has not yet start functioning-; that UN will brief the Parties at each CJMC meeting on the movements that have been monitored by the UN Military Observers; that with UNMIS, P.O. Box 69, Khartoum 11111, Tel (+249) 1 83 794015, Fax (+249) 1 83 79 4041the assistance of the UN, SAF will earmark a place in Abyei for SPLA members in the JIUs; the parties will not accept military deserters from the other party and will take all possible measures to assist in handing them back to the other Party; this policy would apply from 9 Jan 05. The UN confirmed that it would make its Human Rights Unit available to monitor the cases when requested by the Parties. On assembly and registration centres issue, the SPLA agreed to assemble their forces at a time and location to be agreed between the SPLA and the UN in order for full monitoring and verification to occur.
-Still on Military related issues, the current total strength of UNMIS troops is of 3737, including 255 UN Military Observers.
- On activities of UNMIS Military: UN Troops in Juba have moved to different locations along Juba - Yei road and other equatorian regions in South Sudan to provide protection to the De-mining Teams operating in the area.
SOUTH SUDAN
Fighting between the local population in Yambio, the State capital of Western Equatoria in Southern Sudan erupted the day before yesterday and resulted in casualties. No information is available on the number of casualties. The WHO compound has been looted and burnt by the mob. 55 UN agencies staff and international NGOs in Yambio were relocated yesterday and 44 UN and INGO staff operating in Tambura were also relocated giving the rising tensions in the area. The relocation is temporary and all staff relocated will go back to the two locations as soon as the situation is normalized.
ABYEI
In an effort to encourage reconciliation in Abyei, UNMIS office in Abyei arranged a meeting on 14 November between Dinka Ngok, Misseriya leaders and Misseriya nomads in order to provide an updated picture of nomad movements towards Abyei, and allow the two tribes leaders to meet with the nomads and deal with emergency conflicts. The initiative was considered a major success by the participants who requested that similar meetings take place in other areas in Abyei.
HUMANITARIAN
Darfur
-The incidence of sexual and gender based violence in and around IDP camps remains a matter of concern throughout Darfur, with cases of this type of violence being reported regularly. Moreover, the week saw two incidents of kidnapping of village women in the Masteri and Geneina areas where up to 12 women were abducted. Insecurity around Kalma continues, in the absence of intensive police patrolling. Meetings between the IDP sheikhs and government security forces are giving some hope that the situation may soon improve.
-An estimated 10,000 persons have displaced as a result of the fighting in Sergela (located km northwest of Joghana in South Darfur) and surrounding villages. The situation is still tense, after troops thought to be JEM forces attacked the village on 11 November. UN Security is undertaking a security assessment on 15 November, which will be followed by an interagency mission to determine the needs of the newly displaced populations.
-Humanitarian access in West Darfur has somewhat improved since last week, UN security assessments of the roads out of Geneina are ongoing, and it is hoped that the travel restrictions on these roads will be partially or completely lifted in the near future. Although Geneina remain restricted for UN personnel, relief supplies are being delivered by commercial trucks.
Southern Sudan
UNICEF, WHO the Federal Ministry of Health of the GOSS and NGO partners have postponed the launch of a massive measles immunization campaign which was due to start in Western Equatoria on 21 November, due to the the incident I mentioned above in Yambio.
The campaign will begin instead in Juba on 25 November. The campaign aims to immunize about 4.5 million children between 6 months and 15 years of age over this year and in 2006.
Measles vaccination coverage in Southern Sudan is very low and outbreaks common, leading to many avoidable child deaths. Local and international staff preparing for the mass measles campaign were among the UN and NGO aid workers temporarily relocated from Yambio and Tambura on Tuesday due to violence.
IDP survey begins in Southern Sudan
Training of surveyor in preparation for a survey of the intentions of IDPs in Southern Sudan has begun in several locations across the region. The Southern IDP survey will be the primary source of quantitative data on South-South IDP movements. Surveyors will visit numerous IDP camps to gather information on the IDPs' areas of return, household composition, socioeconomic and ethnic characteristics, return and reintegration needs, information needed to make an informed choice about their return, and their health situation. It is expected that the survey results will help refine return planning by providing numerical estimates of IDPs who may be returning to their places of origin or other locations in Southern Sudan in the next year.
A preliminary report is expected to be ready by year-end. An earlier report, "IDP Intentions Concerning Return to their Places of Origin" covered areas in Khartoum, as well as North, East and Central Sudan and was published in June 2005 by IOM, in partnership with UN agencies, NGOs and the Sudanese Government. The survey results are available on the UN Sudan Information gateway website www.unsudanig.org.
Before I conclude my briefing and hand over to Dr. Sabitinelli, I have a couple of items to mention: One, I want to clarify some confusion in the media about what we said about the PDF: The statement made by Mr. Francis KaiKai the Head of the DDR Section at UNMIS was misrepresented. In answer to a question during the last week press briefing on whether the PDF would be part of the Sudan DDR programme, the UNMIS official replied that the PDF has a different status from what the CPA refers to as "other armed groups", since they are part of the Sudanese Armed forces. Any decision relating to the PDF is entirely in the hands of the Sudan Armed Forces. The DDR Programme in Sudan is owned and led by the people of Sudan and we (UN DDR) are in a supportive role. The parties to the CPA will determine the groups they want disarmed and demobilized and supported with civilian reintegration opportunities. We are performing a support role in the context of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), to which the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement are signatories.
Two, on the question that was asked last week on whether the UN can confirm what was reported in the media on the SAF withdrawal of 15 thousand of its troops from Southern Sudan, the answer is that the UN has been notified that the SAF have moved the equivalent of 17% of its forces north of the 1-1-56 line. Due to the delay of this information, UNMIS is only able now to start fully monitoring and verifying the data provided.
So I hope with that issue that I am clear now. I have been informed that Dr. Sabitinelli will not be with us but we will have Dr. Ahmed el-Gannaini from WHO who will also be helping us with the questions and briefing you. I am also told that we have also Mr. Ramashandran from UNICEF, the Deputy HEAD OF univef office in Khartoum. Please join me to provide briefing to our gathering today.
Mr. Ramachandran: Thank you for this opportunity. On behalf of the WHO and the United Nations Children Fund, UNICEF, I would like to make a brief presentation to you on the yellow fever outbreak in South Kordofan.
On 14 November 2005, the Ministry of Health declared an outbreak of yellow fever in South Kordofan. This announcement followed laboratory confirmation that the yellow fever virus is the causative agent for dengue-like haemorrhagic fever.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) are supporting the Ministry of Health in responding to the outbreak, which has already claimed the lives of an estimated 117 people and affected 400 others, as reported by health facilities. The fatality rate of the disease is 29 %. The cases of yellow fever occurred in five localities in the eastern region of South Kordofan. Dilling and Rashad are the most affected areas.
The disease is caused by the yellow fever virus and is difficult to recognize, especially in the early clinical stages. Initially, yellow fever can easily be confused with malaria, leptospirosis, viral
hepatitis, other viral haemorrhagic fevers, including dengue fever. It is transmitted through the bite of the Aedes mosquito.
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