ReliefWeb

Highlights

• The release of children associated with the Cobra Faction is continuing, with a further 298 children released during this reporting period (all boys). UNICEF and partners are supporting the released children with immediate interim care – shelter, education, clothing and basic health care as well as counselling and psychosocial support.

• The Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos, and UNESCO Special Envoy for Peace and Reconciliation, Forest Whitaker, visited South Sudan during the reporting period in an effort to reclaim global attention for the crisis, and travelled to Wai in Ayod County, Jonglei State on 8 February to where humanitarian organizations, including UNICEF, are conducting a Rapid Response Mission (RRM) to provide assistance to the affected displaced populations and host communities. In Wai, UNICEF has reached 24,000 people with nutrition, health, WASH, education and child protection interventions and is working with partners on reestablishing basic services.

• The December Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) update food security outlook for 2015 was released and the situation remains of great concern, with 2.5 million people projected to be in Crisis or Emergency phases from January to March 2015, nearly half in Greater Upper Nile. The prevalence of global acute malnutrition (GAM) is likely to remain above emergency threshold (above 15 per cent), as defined by WHO, especially in the conflict-affected states due to projected worsening food security indicators as well as likely access constraints.