OVER 1,000 REFUGEES NEWLY ARRIVED IN JUNE – Majority of refugees arrived in West and South Kordofan States, followed by White Nile, South Darfur and White Nile States. Lower arrival flows are typical of this time of year with the start of the rainy season in South Sudan and in border entry areas in Sudan, when roads become impassable and rivers and Wadis (Valleys) have flooded in many areas. While arrival rates are slower than in previous years, current movements suggest that there continues to be assistance disruptions in border areas or that people are blocked from accessing assistance. Reports from new arrivals in South Kordofan indicate ongoing insecurity and very high food insecurity in areas of origin in Unity and Northern Bahr El Ghazal States in South Sudan. Add total new arrivals in 2019 as of 30 June.

ENROLLMENT CAMPAIGNS LAUNCHED FOR REFUGEE CHILDREN IN EAST DARFUR – The exercise has seen enrolment nearly double in a two-week period, from 617 refugee students to 1,210 students across both Al Nimir and Kario camps. In El Ferdous settlements, over 800 refugee students enrolled so far. The campaigns include coordinated refugee community sensitization initiatives on the importance of school enrolment and attendance, especially for girls. The 2019/2020 school year is scheduled to begin in June.

UNHCR’s Representative in Uganda today handed over three ambulances, thirty one motorcycles and a thermal scanner to the Ministry of Health to boost the Ebola response. Uganda has included refugees in the National Ebola Preparedness and Response Plan and continues to keep its borders open, ensuring safe and dignified asylum for the women, children and men arriving daily from the neighbouring countries.

AN INFULX OF CAR REFUGEES CROSSING INTO DARFUR: A total of 7,729 new arrivals have crossed the border from Central Africa Republic to Central and South Darfur due to tribal conflicts. The majority of the new arrivals (6,587 individuals) are currently in South Darfur, Um Dafoug locality where level 1 (house hold) registration was conducted by COR. They arrived after July 2019 and this number is increasing daily. 5,727 of them arrived after the second week of October 2019. 296 households that comprise 1,142 individuals are in Um Dukhun locality in Central Darfur.

PILOT SUPPLEMENTARY FEEDING PROGRAM LAUNCHED IN SOUTH DARFUR: World Vision International (WVI) together with the national NGO National Humanitarian Aid Organization (NaHA) launched a pilot supplementary feeding program by distributing food vouchers to the refugee community in El Radom settlement in South Darfur, targeting 8,000 refugees and 2,000 members of the host community. The program aims to complement the general food distribution (GFD) with additional items, focusing on supporting people with special needs, particularly children. The program will continue up to March 2020 as pilot project for El Radom settlement.

UN Refugee Chief welcomes South Sudan’s government of national unity: UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi welcomes the formation of a long-awaited unity government in South Sudan, bringing political rivals together to work for lasting peace. The new government follows the ‘Revitalised agreement on the resolution of the conflict in the Republic of South Sudan’ signed in September 2018 by South Sudan’s warring parties The two main parties have agreed to join forces in running the conflict-affected nation and ending their years old differences. “The new government revives hope for a peaceful future for the people of South Sudan, who are suffering the consequences of this prolonged conflict,” High Commissioner Grandi said. “Millions of South Sudanese – including refugees and internally displaced people, deserve to see an end to their miseries.” This peace agreement has brought hope to the world’s youngest nation, which remains Africa’s largest humanitarian and refugee crisis with 2.2 million South Sudanese refugees and 1.46 million internally displaced. UNHCR is extending its support to South Sudan and its people in their endeavours to find peace and stability.

The first cases of Covid-19 in the EHAGL region were reported on 13 March and the situation continues to evolve. All 11 countries of the region have reported cases and local transmission. While there has been no large-scale outbreak amongst UNHCR’s populations of concern, the need for preparedness is urgent. UNHCR is working closely with governments, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN Country Teams to promote the inclusion of refugees, IDPs, stateless people and others of concern in national preparedness and response measures – in particular in health, hygiene and sanitation programmes, as well as distance learning and emergency social safety nets.

Local authorities at El Leri, South Kordofan have allowed the construction of 300 household latrines by UNICEF at the Dar Batti settlement after being halted in Fall 2017, following a request by authorities to relocate refugees living there due to increasing demand on local water supply and services.

UNHCR Senior Regional WASH Officer visited White Nile refugee camps Al Waral, Jouri, Al Kashafa and Al Redis I and II and flagged 3 key priorities for state WASH response: Urgent need to rehabilitate and de-sludge communal latrines; and installation of household latrines to address widespread open defecation driven by people’s unwillingness to use most latrines. While improved coverage of household latrines is a key priority of the WASH response, a lack of space in most camps without site extensions requires continued reliance on communal latrines.

Over 4,300 South Sudanese refugees newly arrived in Sudan in March, for a total of nearly 15,000 who have arrived in Sudan in 2018 so far. The majority of new arrivals are crossing through East Darfur and South Darfur. Total verified South Sudanese refugee population stands at nearly 769,000.