38,800 IDPs registered in UN protection sites in Juba

More than 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 completed biometric registration exercise.

Aid agencies, which carried out the exercise, said most of these IDPs have been sheltering at the UN base, known as UN House, since the crisis erupted in December 2013.

With support from UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) peacekeeping troops and UN Police, International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UNHCR worked with staff from WFP, Handicap International, and community representatives to roll out the exercise.

The agencies said in a joint statement released in Juba that approximately 10,000 arrived following the four-day resurgence of violence in Juba this July.

"With these new figures, humanitarian partners now have access to improved data that is disaggregated by age and sex, enabling more targeted programming," said the agencies.

In addition, the agencies said information on vulnerable populations helps protection partners provide individualized assistance as needed.

About 200,000 people are sheltering at UNMISS bases across South Sudan.

Humanitarian agencies in South Sudan are engaged in a large-scale humanitarian operation that aims to reach more than 5 million people in need of assistance this year.

The biometric registration process entails obtaining fingerprints of all household members, or photographs in the case of small children, to provide a detailed population count and profile. Endit