Over 38,800 internally displaced persons (IDPs) are sheltering at the UN protection of civilian (PoC) sites in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, according to a recently completed biometric registration exercise.
Approximately 10,000 arrived following a four-day resurgence of violence in Juba this July. The others mostly came in December 2013.
In a press release on Friday, aid organization International Organization for Migration said that it led a “biometric population registration at the UN House PoC sites” from 10 September to 7 October.
The process entails obtaining fingerprints of all household members, or photographs in the case of small children, to provide a detailed population count and profile. IOM says collecting biometric data helps improve planning and services in the camps.
The registration covered both PoC sites 1 and 3, registering 8,251 IDPs and 30,623 IDPs at each site, respectively.
IOM says the new biometric registration data indicates that the Juba PoC population size has increased by at least 10,000 people since the last biometric registration exercises were conducted in January and June of 2015.
“The exercise was a collaborative effort with ACTED, the site’s camp management agency, UNHCR, WFP and the UNMISS, as well as NGO partners Nonviolent Peaceforce, International Medical Corps, Internews, THESO, Handicap International and Community in Need Aid,” the aid group disclosed.
Photo: Biometric registration at the UN House PoC 3 site on 7 October (IOM/McLaughlin 2016)