
Press Release: Update on the Press Conference of the Legitimate FVP Dr. Riek Machar (18.08.2016)


“Mabior Garang, a spokesman for Riek Machar’s SPLM-In Opposition party, joins us live in our Studios to give us further information on the former vice President’s situation. Here are the questions…
Q1. Mabior… Do you know where doctor Riek Machar is and his current condition?
Q2. While refusing to return to Juba, until after the deployment of a buffer force, DR Machar had insisted on staying on in South Sudan. Why has he found it necessary to leave the country now? What is is his plan?
Q3. President Salva Kiir and his new First Vice President Taban Gai Deng, have insisted that there is now no role for Riek Machar in the Unity government and that the country can implement the peace deal without him. What’s Riek Machar’s view on this?” (CCTV Africa, 2016)

49 South Sudanese refugees and one Ugandan national have been confirmed to have contracted the disease.
GENEVA, Switzerland, August 18, 2016 – The Government of Uganda and United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) are implementing containment measures in the recently-opened Pagirinya settlement in Adjumani district following confirmation of an outbreak of cholera.49 South Sudanese refugees and one Ugandan national have been confirmed to have contracted the disease. 44 have been provided with treatment and subsequently discharged from health facilities having fully recovered, while two patients remain in quarantine.
Additional measures are being taken to ensure the outbreak doesn’t spread further. Those who have contracted the disease are having their houses disinfected and their water supply drained while a door to door awareness-raising campaign takes place. The sale of fresh produce at markets and on the road side has been restricted. Other sanitation strengthening activities, such as chlorination of water points, garbage cleaning, strengthening of hand-washing facilities and the distribution of water guards, have been intensified. As a result, the number of new cases continues to be small but health teams continue to pay close attention to individuals displaying any potential symptoms.
Cholera is an acute infectious disease, usually shared through the consumption of contaminated food and water, which can potentially prove fatal. Sufferers endure symptoms that include acute watery diarrhea and vomiting.
The majority of people found to be suffering from the outbreak are located in reception centres in Pagirinya settlement, with smaller numbers found to be suffering in the settlement itself and at Elegu collection point. Pagirinya is currently hosting more than 30,000 South Sudanese refugees, all of whom arrived in the last 6 weeks.
“We have received a large number of young children as refugees over the last month or so, who are particularly vulnerable to this possibly lethal disease,” said acting Representative to Uganda Bornwell Kantande. “Together with the Ministry of Health and our health partners, we’ve rapidly implemented response measures to contain its spread. We’re continuing to do our best to reduce the number of people living in these reception centres as quickly as possible, not only to reduce the risk of disease outbreaks, but so that these people can begin to rebuild their lives as soon as possible.”
Decongestion of transit and reception centres remain a top priority. Refugees are being relocated to the recently-opened Bidibidi settlement in Yumbe district where, in line with Uganda’s generous settlement approach, they will be provided with plots of land on which to build new homes and to grow agricultural crops.
More than 80,000 South Sudanese refugees have fled to Uganda since the outbreak of violence in Juba on 8 July. Over 85% of the new arrivals are women and children, with children comprising 64 percent of new arrivals. They report that armed groups are attacking villages, killing civilians, sexually assaulting women and girls and forcibly recruiting young men and boys in to their ranks.

“Newly appointed South Sudan Vice President Taban Deng Gai on Wednesday warned his predecessor Dr Riek Machar that he will be stopped at all costs if he attempts to go on the offensive. Gai who was in Kenya to brief President Uhuru Kenyatta on the progress of implementing the peace agreement warned that President Salva Kiir’s government would not allow Machar to interfere with peace and security of South Sudan” (Capital FM Kenya, 2016)

Facing insecurity and hunger, more than 190,000 people continue to seek protection at PoC sites across the country, in Juba, Bentiu, Malakal, Wau, Bor and Melut.
JUBA, South Sudan, August 17, 2016 – An estimated 37,200 displaced persons are currently seeking protection at one of the two UN peacekeeping bases in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, according to a population count held at the UN House protection of civilians (PoC) site on 13 August.
Renewed violence and instability have generated new displacement in South Sudan in recent months. Facing insecurity and hunger, more than 190,000 people continue to seek protection at PoC sites across the country, in Juba, Bentiu, Malakal, Wau, Bor and Melut.
The majority of the 37,200 internally displaced persons (IDPs) living at the UN House PoC site fled the violence that erupted in Juba on 15 December 2013 and quickly spread throughout the country. Thousands more fled to the base when fighting resumed in the capital between government and opposition forces in July 2016.
To determine the current size of the IDP population in the site, IOM joined ACTED, camp manager of the UN House PoC site, and other UN and non-governmental organizations to conduct the population count. The exercise began before dawn to ensure accuracy, with a house-to-house operation.
The population count is important for the delivery of services, particularly food assistance. The exercise will improve planning for humanitarian assistance and enable the UN World Food Programme to provide food for the full population registered at the site.
“Interagency cooperation was essential to the success of the exercise. Staff from 15 agencies participated in the population count, from planning to logistics to implementation,” said Andrea Paiato, IOM Camp Coordination and Camp Management Programme Coordinator.
UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) peacekeeping troops and UN Police provided security, while camp management and partners conducted a messaging campaign before registration.
The fighting in Juba in July displaced at least 15,000 people, of which more than 12,500 remain displaced at the UN House PoC site, UNMISS peacekeeping base in Tong Ping and collective centres.
IOM is coordinating with relief agencies to provide emergency assistance to IDPs at the Tong Ping site, managing an emergency health care clinic, providing shelter and ensuring access to safe drinking water. ACTED continues to facilitate humanitarian operations at the UN House PoC site.

Around 200,000 refugees who arrived in Uganda prior to July 2015 will have their food rations or cash assistance reduced by 50 percent from this week.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, August 17, 2016 – The Government of Uganda – Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) have appealed to donors to urgently speed contributions to the humanitarian response to refugees in Uganda to end a funding shortage that has forced a revision of survival rations.
Around 200,000 refugees who arrived in Uganda prior to July 2015 will have their food rations or cash assistance reduced by 50 percent from this week. Low levels of funding, together with a large number of new arrivals fleeing to Uganda from South Sudan since 7 July, has left the refugee response with no choice but to re-prioritize their focus on those refugees in greatest need. Refugees who arrived in Uganda after July 2015, as well as those who have been identified as particularly vulnerable, such as the elderly, orphans, the chronically ill and those in need of treatment for malnutrition, will continue to receive a full ration.
Refugees receiving full rations are provided with 2,122 calories of food per person per day, in line with the minimum recommended daily allowance, during their first year, decreasing as they become increasingly self-reliant during their time in Uganda. Other refugees receive cash assistance in place of food rations, which also provides them with the opportunity to exercise greater personal choice.
“We are grateful to donors for their unwavering support so far but we appeal to the international community to do more,” said OPM Commissioner for Refugees David Apollo Kazungu. “People are fleeing because they are afraid for their lives. Our communities are welcoming them and giving them what we can: land and hope for a better future. But our message to the international community is this: we need your help to meet their basic needs until they are able to stand on their own two feet.”
WFP requires approximately US$7 million every month to provide life-saving food assistance to refugees in Uganda. Despite the generous support of donors, the humanitarian response requires an additional US$20million to restore full food rations to refugees for the rest of the year.
“We have done everything we can to avoid this, but we have been left with no option but to reduce food assistance for many of the refugees in Uganda, in order to stretch available resources and prioritize the most vulnerable new arrivals,” said Mike Sackett, WFP’s acting Country Director for Uganda. “We hope that this is temporary, and we are working as hard as we can to raise the resources needed to restore the full level of food assistance for as many refugees as possible.”
The humanitarian response to South Sudanese refugees in Uganda was already severely underfunded before the outbreak of violence in Juba on 8 July, which has since prompted more than 70,000 people to cross the border in to Uganda. New arrivals have spoken of armed groups operating across various parts of South Sudan, attacking villages, burning down houses, murdering civilians, sexually assaulting women and girls and forcibly recruiting young men and boys in to their ranks.
“Never has the international community been more generous in its donations towards refugees,” said acting UNHCR Representative to Uganda Bornwell Kantande. “At the same time, never has the gap between what is being provided and what is needed been larger. We thank the donors for their continued generosity and support, while urging them to further fund humanitarian organizations in order that we may continue providing refugees in Uganda with the life-saving assistance they critically need.”
OPM and UNHCR lead and co-coordinate the response to the roughly 600,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Uganda, and collaborate together with the World Food Programme to provide new arrivals with life-saving food assistance. By the end of 2015, Uganda was the third-largest refugee hosting country in Africa and the eighth-largest refugee hosting country in the world.