UNHCR TO PROVIDE PLASTIC SHEETING AND OTHER NON-FOOD ITEMS (NFIs) FOLLOWING FLASH FLOODING IN EL NUHUD, WEST KORDOFAN - Flash flooding caused injuries and destroyed homes, public buildings and shops in El Nuhud locality, where nearly 4,000 South Sudanese refugees live. UNHCR and the Commission for Refugees (COR) conducted an initial rapid needs assessment on 24 July. UNHCR will provide 3,000 NFI kits to locality residents, including plastic sheeting. The local primary school attended by both refugees and host communities was also affected, with damaged latrines and fencing. OCHA led an inter-agency needs assessment for areas affected by flash flooding on 30 July.

PARTNERS CONCERNED OVER NUTRITION PROGRAMMING GAPS IN EAST DARFUR – Nutrition programming gaps have emerged for refugees in El Ferdous settlement following the ending of Al Manar Voluntary Organization’s (AMVO) outpatient therapeutic programme (OTP). Pipeline breaks for Ready-to Use Supplementary Food (RUSF) have also disrupted Targeted Supplementary Feeding Programmes (TSFPs) for refugees in Al Nimir camp and El Ferdous. State Ministry of Health provision of nutrition supplies for the OTP in El Ferdous ended on 31 July. New nutrition programming is urgently needed.

On 5th August, an Agreement on Outstanding Issues of Governance and power-sharing was signed by all parties to the South Sudan conflict in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

Due to a notably slower rate of new arrivals of South Sudanese in the first half of the year, the inter-agency partners in Sudan and Uganda agreed to revise the original estimates of 200,000 individuals. The overall regional projected South Sudanese refugee population reduced by 0.5 million and stands at 2.68 million refugees by end 2018.

UNHCR and its humanitarian partners are developing a joint action plan to help prevent suicides by detecting those at risk and building referral systems. It is acknowledged that physical protection is not enough and there is a need to help create livelihoods. The 'Operation Hope' Campaign aims to cut rise in suicides sparked by South Sudan war. Experts believe the negative effect of South Sudan’s conflict on civilians’ mental health has been staggering.

UNHCR establish call center to ease communication with refugees to enable them to report urgent protection and assistance-related problems, receive guidance on queries that they raise, lodge complaints about sensitive incidents or obtain general information and advice.

In Uganda, limited resources means not having enough staff to ensure quality of child protection services and adequate follow up on children in care arrangements. There is one caseworker for every 150 children, and children make up some 63 per cent of the refugee population. Water provision to refugees also remains below what is required.

Some 57,000 refugees living in informal settlements in Khartoum are going without any assistance.

High rates of Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) and Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) rates are reported in asylum countries, compounding pre-existing protection challenges faced by the South Sudanese refugees prior to their flight in particular for women, children and youth.

SECONDARY MOVEMENTS TO NORTH DARFUR ONGOING AS REFUGEES SEEK WORK – Biometric registration of refugees in Al Lait locality is ongoing. More than 500 refugees previously registered in East Darfur have arrived in Al Lait since August seeking casual labour opportunities during the locality’s harvest period. Over 60 per cent of newly registered refugees to North Darfur are young single males. Farming is a key source of refugee livelihoods across Al Lait and is a key draw for refugees to the area. Host communities are also engaged in land-use arrangements with refugee farmers to allow refugees to cultivate land with harvest-sharing agreements.