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DTM South Sudan Wau POCAA Site: IOM DTM Rapid Intentions Survey of New Arrivals - 28 April 2017

Countries
South Sudan
Sources
IOM
Publication date
Origin
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BACKGROUND

Wau town has been trying to recover from the shocks of a series of significant incidents that occurred in June of last year following conflict between the local community and national security services. During that incident the Protection of Civilians Adjacent Area (POCAA) was created with a population of almost 25,000 by September of that year. Despite Government efforts to find ways to improve security in the town, including the deployment of additional National Security officers, the situation has failed to dramatically improve. Since January of this year, there has been an escalating series of incidents in parts of Jur River County between cattle herders from neighboring Warrap and the host community. Questions over the impartiality of security services during those clashes has further raised distrust between the local community and those tasked with protecting them. The local authorities have accused the SPLA/iO of having been responsible for cattle thefts that have instigated these localized conflicts.

When the SPLA launched its offensives against SPLA/iO positions at the start of April, the relationship with the local community was extremely low. The ambush and killing of two senior SPLA officers during those operations provoked a rampage in which Government security services were implicated in the killing of at least 23 people from the Balanda and Luo communities within Wau town. The length of insecurity in Wau and the persistent victimization of its civilian population has created considerable mistrust. With ongoing military operations in the vicinity of the town and a continued aggressive security stance within the town the likelihood of any significant returns taking place in the foreseeable future remains low.

As a result of the escalation of insecurity, an influx of nearly 17,000 IDPs entered the Wau POCAA around mid-April, an approximate 55% increase in the total population size. IOM and WFP conducted a joint paper registration of new arrivals in the POCAA from 25-27 April which resulted in the registration of 13,915 new arrivals . The discrepancy in figures is due to the fact that the paper registration conducted does not include those IDPs that were previously biometrically registered by IOM in other collective centers in March 2017. The aim of the joint paper registration was to capture only those new arrivals who have never been registered before in order to provide them with food.