28 March 2014 - Two UN agencies today launched an urgent operation to deliver food, vaccines, nutritional supplements and other vital supplies to one of the most isolated areas of conflict-stricken South Sudan.

Using helicopters and air drops, UNICEF and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) are jointly assisting 30,000 people in dire need in Akobo, Jonglei State, near South Sudan’s border with Ethiopia.

The agencies have set up emergency distribution points for food, health, protection, education and sanitation.

According to a joint press release, Akobo is the first location the two agencies are reaching under the new joint strategy. Fourteen missions are planned over the next month, seeking to support as many as 250,000 people in remote, conflict-affected communities in Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity states.

“Children and families in South Sudan are now facing unprecedented suffering - with worrying signs of malnutrition and disease outbreaks," said UNICEF’s representative in the country, Jonathan Veitch.

“With the rainy season looming we have to seize every opportunity to rapidly deploy teams and life-saving supplies to the hardest to reach. This is how we will avert a humanitarian catastrophe.”

Earlier this month, WFP began a series of food airdrops to remote areas of South Sudan that have been unreachable because of insecurity and other obstacles.

“The conflict…is pushing millions of people further into hunger and complicating efforts to provide relief, and we are enormously concerned that things could get worse,” said WFP Country Director Chris Nikoi.

They are “reaching more people every day, overcoming severe challenges, including looting and continued fighting,” WFP Spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs told journalists in Geneva.

“Working with NGO partners, WFP has reached nearly 500,000 people affected (by the crisis), and plans to assist an additional 275, 000 next month,” she said.

Meanwhile, UNICEF has observed increasing levels of disease outbreaks, measles and polio – with children being among the largest number of the displaced persons and refugees.

Speaking on behalf of UNICEF, Sarah Crowe said, “The youngest citizens of the world’s newest country are suffering the most from the rising levels of malnutrition and increasing violence.”

“These children have seen rising levels of violence and their schools are often occupied by warring sides, with enrolment rates dropping significantly,” Ms. Crowe said.

Though cholera is momentarily under control, the rainy season is approaching and the threat looms that parts of the country would become impassable and swamped – rendering relief operations more difficult and expensive, she added.