The aid operation in South Sudan has begun to expand back into Jonglei State after several weeks without major fighting. Humanitarian workers are moving primarily by charter flight.

OCHA, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, described in its latest update published Friday some new or resumed activities in parts of South Sudan’s largest state.

Jonglei is divided, with the SPLA Kiir faction controlling Bor and surrounding areas of the southwest, the SSDM Cobra Faction controlling parts of the east in Pibor County, and the SPLA Machar faction controlling much of the north.

Nationwide, efforts to scale up the aid response are hampered by insecurity and funding gaps in various sectors, according to the UN agency.

Key points from the UN report follow below:

• Aid workers in Jonglei resumed nutrition activities in Pibor and Gumuruk. Of 165 children screened in these locations, nearly half were found to be moderately malnourished.

• Demining teams in Bor have cleared humanitarian compounds and continue to clear the town areas of hazardous threats.

• The UN Emergency Telecommunications Cluster undertook a visit to Bor for an assessment of what technical support could be provided at the UN Bor base, where aid groups have an operations hub.

• NGOs re-gained access to Labrab, Jonglei State, where people in need of nutrition support last received supplies in January.

• Aid workers also gained access to Mayendit in Unity State. They found “severe needs for nutritional support.”

• Nutrition activities in the Crisis Response Plan are only 16 per cent funded. Plans to scale up new programmes in previously inaccessible areas are hindered. “Nutrition partners are faced with large operations costs and are unable to recruit the teams required for a scaled-up response due to limited funding,” says OCHA.

• WFP began tasking one aircraft (Ilyshun-76) with airdrops in Upper Nile, Jonglei and Unity States. The fleet’s new airplane enhances WFP’s airlift/airdrop capacity by 1,200 metric tonnes per month.

• UNMAS investigated the site of a landmine explosion which occurred on 9 March near Yoynyang in Guit County, Unity State on the Bentiu to Leer road, destroying a pickup truck and killing four people. The mine workers could not verify whether the landmine was newly laid or was from a previous period of conflict.

• NGO and UN child protection activities are running in 17 counties, but not in 6 counties of the three worst-affected states in terms of displacement, Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile. “Child protection gaps will increase further as funding is running out for some or all of the activities of up to 15 partners between March and August,” says the report.

• Some 149,80 children have been vaccinated against measles, and 125,880 against polio. Around 10,330 people in UN Tomping in Juba and Awerial County have been reached by a second round oral cholera vaccination. Meningitis vaccination started in Mingkaman, with 5,066 people vaccinated so far.