Humanitarian operations are scaling up in the South Sudanese town Melut, which is near the country’s most productive oil fields and north of the devastated state capital Malakal.
Melut is hosting tens of thousands who fled from Malakal and other areas, as well as others transiting through the area on their way north to Renk and the Sudan border. Overall there are estimated to be more than 150,000 people displaced within Upper Nile.
OCHA, the UN coordination agency, stated in a recent report that food distributions in Melut were planned this week, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it deployed there an expert team of water and sanitation workers.
An UN assessment team visited the area last Thursday and reported “conditions are poor with sanitation problems and overcrowding, but water and primary health care services are available,” according to a recent OCHA update.
Last week the number of displaced people in Melut area was estimated to be about 35,000 people, with about 1000 people sheltering inside the UN base and far more are outside the base within the town and surrounding areas.
On Wednesday the UN Humanitarian Coordinator Toby Lanzer said more people were heading to the area. “More people arriving in Malakal, including from northern Jonglei and areas in Upper Nile State (e.g. Baliet); most seem to be in transit heading to Melut,” he said through his Twitter account on Tuesday.
The medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced last week they would deploy health workers to the area. “I think today, we are also looking to put our team in Melut,” MSF General Director Arjan Hehenkampsaid said on 29 January.
A local official says that MSF is currently building a new airstrip to facilitate aid operations in the town. Melut County Commissioner Akuoch Teny told Eye Radio in Juba that aid agencies have been finding it difficult to supply humanitarian assistance to people in Melut County due to lack of an airstrip.
“It will help the communities because it will be for civil aviation purposes, and the communities will benefit from the airstrip in terms of employment, in terms of security and even our IDPs are going to benefit from that airstrip,” said the commissioner.
Previously the town was dependent on Faluj airstrip. After completion of the work by MSF, commercial and UN flights will be able to land in Melut County directly.
Photo: Plastic sheets are loaded from the plane onto a truck in Malakal, 31 January 2014 (IOM)
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Fashoda County: 30,000 displaced, 0 doctors (31 Jan.)
Renk chiefs call for calm as thousands arrive from conflict zones (14 Jan.)