WFP South Sudan Situation Report #91, 24 August 2015

Highlights

• Executive Director for WFP confirms death of four staff. On 18 August, the day before World Humanitarian Day, WFP’s Executive Director, Ertharin Cousin, confirmed for the world that four colleagues from WFP’s South Sudan operation have likely died while on duty. This includes Security Assistant Mark Diang, who was taken from the Malakal airport in October 2014 as well as two staff drivers—Simon Peter Ajak, James John Adwok and one contracted driver, John Ajak, who disappeared while on mission during skirmishes in Akoka in April 2015. http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/eve-world-humanitarian-day-wfp-executive-director-lauds-frontline-heroes.
• WFP celebrates World Humanitarian Day. WFP’s Regional Director for Eastern and Central Africa, Valerie Guarnieri, opened the occasion by hosting an internal all-staff meeting in Juba on 18 August where she lauded staff for their commitment to humanitarian service in South Sudan and recognized the sacrifices made in that endeavour. A special moment of silence was held to respect the memory of colleagues that have passed away while on duty and working in South Sudan.
• On 19 August, WFP attended the World Humanitarian Day commemorative event organized by UN OCHA in Juba, represented by its Head of Programme, Shaun Hughes. At a press conference following the event, Hughes explained the multiple challenges facing humanitarian workers in providing assistance to people affected by the conflict in South Sudan. He stressed the criticality of using windows of opportunity, where and when access is possible, to quickly respond.
• Approximately 1.45 million people in South Sudan reached last month with food assistance. In the month of July, WFP and its partners reached about 1.45 million people with roughly 18,500 mt of food assistance under both its Emergency Operations and its Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation in all ten states and the Abyei contested are. This is the highest number of people reached and metric tonnage distributed thus far in 2015. Cumulatively since January 2015, 2.3 million people have been reached with about 110,080 mt of food.