HIGHLIGHTS
Following renewed conflict in Jabel Marra, which began in midJanuary 2016, over 90,000 people have now been displaced to North Darfur State alone. The number of displaced children is reported to be very high with 90 per cent of the displaced recorded as women and children in some locations.
UNICEF and partners were amongst the first responding to the Jabel Marra crisis, facilitated by having prepositioned supplies across North Darfur covering the humanitarian needs for an initial 30,000 people. Six family tracing and reunification (FTR) teams were deployed within one week in Tawilla, Kebkabiya and Sortoni in North Darfur. Registration, reunification and alternative care arrangements have been made for 588 unaccompanied and separated children and 132 children have been identified as missing.
Measles immunisation campaigns targeting 33,260 children between six months and 15 years were carried out as an immediate response to displaced children arriving in Tawilla and Sortoni, North Darfur.
841 children aged under five fleeing the conflict in Jebel Marra were supported for treatment of severe acute malnutrition as a result of UNICEF immediate interventions.
The UNICEF Sudan humanitarian appeal for 2016 is 98% unfunded. The worst affected are Cluster Coordination and Child Protection, which have received no funding to date.
Humanitarian Needs
Following renewed conflict in Jabel Marra, which began in mid-January, over 90,000 people have now been displaced to North Darfur State. Most have sought shelter in Tawilla, Sortoni and Kebkabiya. The number of displaced children is reported to be very high, with 90 per cent of the displaced recorded as women and children in some locations. The newly displaced have urgent humanitarian needs including for protection, nutrition, health and WASH. WASH needs are particularly acute with 310,000 additional litres of water required per day as well as an additional 1,030 latrines. Within the displaced an estimated 6,600 children are also due to sit important grade eight examinations as the school year comes to a close. Reports that up to 50,000 people could be newly displaced in Central Darfur are currently unverified due to constraints in humanitarian access with numbers for South Darfur also unknown, although there are reports that some 1,000 people have arrived in Kass. It is not known how many people have been displaced within the non-government controlled parts of the Jabel Marra area with no access currently available for humanitarian actors. South Sudanese refugees continue to seek shelter in Sudan with new arrivals primarily seeking refuge in refugee sites in White Nile and in West Kordofan states. 173,834 South Sudanese refugees have sought refuge in Sudan since the outbreak of conflict in South Sudan in December 2013, of which 114,730 are children. Between 29 August 2015 and 14 February 2016, 617 suspected dengue fever cases have been reported in Sudan, including 105 deaths, affecting the Darfur, Kordofan and Kassala states. The last case was reported on 12 February.