Highlights
• WFP reached 1.2 million people with 13,140 mt of food assistance in the month of December 2015. Under its Emergency Operation, 8,973 mt of food was distributed to 879,937 people in the three Greater Upper Nile states, UNMISS PoC sites and Mingkaman. Through its Protracted Relief and Recovery activities, WFP reached 360,195 beneficiaries with 4,167 mt. In 2015, WFP reached approximately 2.9 million people, with 190,230 mt (estimated figures, pending final reporting in the WFP Standard Project Reports).
• WFP is increasing its reach in Unity as fighting decreases.
Koch and Buaw missions successfully concluded. Teams deployed to the two Unity state locations last week supported more than 18,400 people. While there, the missions found a relatively stable nutrition status for both children under 5 and pregnant/breastfeeding women. WFP is waiting for the full mission report to further analyse these initial findings, but possible reasons for the relatively low malnutrition rates may include: 1) NGO World Relief has been present and providing health and nutrition services in these locations since November; 2) some of the most vulnerable groups in these populations may have moved to the Bentiu PoC; and 3) the most desperate populations that did not go to the PoC may still be hiding in remote areas.
WFP plans to deploy to three more locations in Mayendit and Koch counties in Unity state in the upcoming week.
• Market prices significantly increased in December 2015. WFP’s monthly market price bulletin shows that following the introduction of the floating exchange rate, the depreciation of the South Sudanese Pound (SSP) against the US dollar continued into 2016, reaching nearly 20 SSP to USD1 during the second week of January 2016. Nominal prices of most staple food commodities and fuel were still showing an upward trend across the country in November and December, periods typically associated with harvests, increased local supplies and lower prices of locally produced food. The staple food prices in December 2015 were also significantly higher than the same month both in 2014 as well as the five-year average.