Unity State, South Sudan July - September 2018
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Situation Overview: Unity State, South Sudan July - September 2018 Introduction. Map 1: REACH assessment coverage of Unity through 9 food security and livelihoods (FSL) Map 2: Proportion of assessed settlements State, July (A), August (B) and Sept 2018 (C) focus group discussions (FGDs) conducted in reporting an incident of deadly conflict in past In the third quarter of 2018, Unity State only A B Bentiu and Nyal, and with secondary data. month, June (A), July (B), and August 2018 (C) partially recovered from the wave of violence that A B began in late April and continued through July This Situation Overview focuses on changes 2018.1 Reports of conflict incidents decreased; in observed humanitarian needs across C Unity State in the third quarter of 2018. The however, persistent criminality, environmental Pariang first section analyses protection challenges, C and health challenges, and resultant food Pariang displacement and population movement, and insecurity continued to imperil lives, stress Rubkona livelihoods, and spur displacement. Access to the second evaluates access to food and Rubkona Mayom Guit basic services. services in the counties most affected by the Mayom Guit recent violence (Leer, Mayendit, Koch and, to Protection, Displacement, and a lesser extent, Guit and Rubkona) returned Population Movements to early 2018 levels, but structural challenges Koch Koch that limited reported access to health, WASH, Protection and education services remained. In the far In the most conflict-affected parts of Unity 0% 0 - 4.9% north of the state, Abiemnhom and Pariang Mayendit 1 - 20% Leer State, reports of violent conflict decreased as Mayendit counties were outliers to many state trends, 5 - 10% Leer the rainy season advanced (see Map 2).2 At 21 - 40% reflecting their relative insulation from conflict 11 - 20% 41 - 60% and displacement dynamics affecting the rest the peak of violence in June, more than 70% of 21 - 50% 61 - 80% assessed settlements in Leer (96%), Mayendit Panyijiar of Unity. 51 - 100% Panyijiar (92%), Koch (71%) and Rubkona (80%) had 81 - 100% Assessed settlement To inform humanitarian actors working outside reported the occurrence of a deadly conflict Insufficient data formal settlement sites, REACH has conducted Assessed settlement incident within the last month. By September, assessments of hard-to-reach areas in South the proportion of assessed settlements Sudan since December 2015. Data is collected In Unity State, REACH interviewed 770 Key from 7% to 38% of assessed settlements in reporting the same dropped to 43% in Leer, through interviews on a monthly basis from Informants (KIs) in the Bentiu Protection of Guit and from 0% to 25% in Mayendit. These settlements across the country. Civilians (PoC) site, Nyal, and Ajuong Thok 54% in Mayendit, 30% in Koch, and 19% increases reflect local-level cattle raiding and in Rubkona. Two outliers from this general # of key informant interviews conducted: 770 in the third quarter of 2018 (July, August, armed group dynamics. and September). The KIs were from 598 trend were Guit and Mayom counties, where # of assessed settlements: 598 Despite the reduction in reported deadly unique settlements situated in all 9 counties reported incidents of deadly conflict increased # of focus group discussions conducted: 9 in the state. Survey findings were triangulated in the quarter’s final reporting month, rising conflict, widespread insecurity remained. The 1. See REACH. Situational Overview: Unity State, April- June 2018. July 2018. OCHA. Humanitarian Bulletin. July 2018. See also UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Human Rights Division (HRD). 2. See also ACLED. Political Violence and Protest Data - South Sudan. Indiscriminate attacks against civilians in Southern Unity. April-May 2018. May 2018. April - October 2018. Map 3: Proportion of assessed settlements physical and food security trends. The Figure 1: Proportion of host community METHODOLOGY reporting an incident of looting in the previous reduction of armed conflict and start of the remaining, % of assessed settlements, Sept To provide an overview of the situation in month, July (A), August (B), and Sept 2018 (C) rainy season encouraged some to return < Half Half > Half All largely inaccessible areas of Unity State, A B home to cultivate. At the same time, persistent REACH uses primary data provided by key crime-related insecurity, environmental and July 56% 24% 12% 0% informants who have recently arrived from, health challenges, and the resultant food recently visited, or receive regular information from a location or “Area of Knowledge” (AoK). C insecurity pushed others to search for food August 23% 53% 13% 0% Pariang Information for this report was collected from elsewhere. Overall, populations remained key informants in the Bentiu PoC site, Nyal highly mobile with evidences of substantial, Mayendit Sept 29% 44% 24% 0% town and Jamjang town in July, August, and Rubkona and often cyclical, movement within and September 2018. Mayom Guit across counties. < Half Half > Half All In-depth interviews were conducted over Host community the first three weeks of each month. The July 0% 43% 43% 0% standardised survey tool includes questions on The majority of assessed settlements across Koch displacement trends, population needs, food the State continued to report that at least security and livelihoods, and access to basic August 24% 49% 27% 0% 0% some portion of the host community remained services. After data collection was completed, in the settlement. Changes in the proportion of 1 - 20% Mayendit Rubkona all data was aggregated at the settlement Leer the host populations that remained, however, 21 - 40% Sept 34% 29% 20% 0% level, and settlements were assigned the provide evidence of divergent displacement modal response. When no consensus could 41 - 60% patterns (see Figure 1). In Mayendit, for be found for a settlement, that settlement was 61 - 80% security dynamics. As further evidence, the Panyijiar example, the majority of assessed settlements not included in reporting. 81 - 100% in July reported that less than half of the proportion of assessed settlements reporting Data was analyzed at the county level using Insufficient data that individuals had moved to a displacement descriptive statistics and geospatial analysis. population remained. By September, the Assessed settlement majority reported that half or more of the camp to find new sources of food remained Only counties with interview coverage of at high in these counties throughout the third least 5% of settlements for a given month population now lived in the settlement. quarter of 2018 (see Figure 2). were included in analysis. Due to access violence in the previous quarter. Indeed, 50% Mayendit was one of the most conflict-affected and operational constraints, the specific or more of assessed settlements in Leer, areas in the previous quarter. The partial return Figure 2: Proportion of assessed settelements reporting people moving to a displacement settlements assessed within each county each Mayendit, Koch,3 Guit and Rukona counties of individuals likely reflects the reduction of month vary. Thus, some changes over time camp for food, Mayom, Rubkona and Gui reported an incident of looting in every month conflict incidents, tempered by still persistent 90% reported in this situation overview might be crime-related insecurity. A similar trend was 78% due to variations in coverage. of the third quarter. This persistent human insecurity negatively impacted displacement, observed in Leer county as well. 69% percentage of assessed settlements reporting food security and access to services Conversely, in Rubkona county, an increasing throughout July, August and September. proportion of assessed settlements reported incidents of looting remained high throughout 28% that a decreasing proportion of the host Displacement and Population Movements much of Unity State during this reporting period population remained. Similar trends were (see Map 3). This was especially true among Population movement and displacement observed in neighbouring Guit and Mayom those counties most affected by the wave of trends in Unity reflect counterbalancing counties, and likely reflect adverse food Jan-18 Feb-18 Mar-18 Apr-18 May-18 Jun-18 Jul-18 Aug-18 Sep-18 3. Koch county is not included in September averages because of insufficient coverage. suggests that the numbers would be higher but only marginally so. 2 That said, adding in the 36 settlements that were covered during this missing month Figure 3: Percentage of assessed settlements Internally displaced persons and returnees Map 4: Proportion of assessed settlements and livelihood dynamics that were only partially reporting presence of IDPs, September 2018 reporting adequate access to food, July (A), ameliorated by humanitarian assistance. The The recent displacements add to substantial Panyijiar 96% August (B) and September 2018 (C) following outlines four important dynamics in protracted displacements throughout Unity A B Leer 90% greater detail. Mayendit 71% State, with the result that a large proportion of 5 Koch* 47% assessed settlements continued to report the Insecurity’s effect on livelihoods Guit 44% presence of IDPs throughout the third quarter FGD participants from Koch, Mayendit, Guit, Rubkona 35% (see Figure 3). There is some evidence that C Pariang Rubkona, and Mayom counties all stressed Mayom 31% much of the displacement was relatively the negative impact of past conflict and Pariang 24% localized. As Figure 4 illustrates,