A flight carrying Save the Children emergency aid has arrived in Juba, South Sudan.
The relief items will benefit more than 5,000 families displaced by fighting in South Sudan. The 40 tons of cargo includes plastic sheeting for shelter, blankets and mosquito nets that will be distributed in partnership with UN agencies to families forced to flee their homes in Juba and Awerial.
This is the third Save the Children aid flight into South Sudan since fighting began in Juba on 15 December, last year. The fighting has since spread to many other parts of the country, displacing almost 200,000 people, many of them children. Sixty two thousand people are living in overcrowded sites at UN compounds in Juba, Bor, Malakal and Bentiu where many are still without proper shelter, and where food, water and sanitation is in short supply. Others have fled to safer parts of the country such as Awerial where it is estimated 85,000 people of which around 60% will be children, are children sleeping under the trees and where the threat of the spread of disease, including malaria and diseases caused by people drinking dirty water from rivers and swamps, is growing daily. Children caught up in the fighting are at a significant increased risk of violence, abuse and separation from their families.
This aid flight follows one from Save the Children that arrived in Juba on 30 December 2013, carrying emergency relief items including tents, jerrycans and blankets that are in the process of being distributed to 4,000 families, and the first delivery of aid brought into South Sudan by Save the Children on 24 December 2013. As well as supporting people displaced by the violence, Save the Children has been able to support other humanitarian organisations in South Sudan with vital stocks such as water bladder tanks, hospital tents, tents to establish their activities and jerry cans.
Save the Children is currently working to assist children separated from their parents during the violence, and to support vulnerable children displaced by the conflict in Juba. We are expanding our response to meet the needs of more children in other locations, and will continue to scale up our response to more areas once the security situation allows it.