Aweil East Country is situated in Northern Bahr El Ghazal (NBeG) sate, in Southern Sudan. It is under the Government of Southern Sudan, following the peace agreement signed in January 2005 between the government of Khartoum and the SPLM (Sudanese People Liberation Movement). NBeG is one of the smaller states of Southern Sudan but the most densely populated. It is a returnee/IDP entry point from Khartoum and Darfur.
More than 40,000 returnees and 8,000 IDPs - including 27,000 returnees and 4,000 IDPs in Aweil East County are reported to have arrived during the first half of 2008 alone. In 2007, 70,000 returnees were registered to have arrived in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State . Aweil East County is inhabited by the Dinka ethnic group. It is composed of seven administrative payams, and each run from the north to the south, resulting in long and narrow areas. They are: Malualbai, Baac, Madhol, Mangartong, Mangok and Wunlang payams.In the rainy season, between April and September, roads are practically or completely impassable, especially in the lowlands.
In January 2008, ACF-F took over Tearfund nutrition program in Aweil County bu keeping the Tearfund OTP sites, opening a TFC in Malualkon and conducting nutritional surveys.
Nutritional and retrospective mortality surveys are undertaken every six months in order to estimate the malnutrition and the mortality rates. In previous years, Tearfuns has carried out nutrition surveys in March/April and November of every year. The plan was to conduct the survey in March/April, et the beginning of the hunger gap season, yet due to constraints, it was done in June, during the hunger gap peak. This survey gives a picture of the nutritional situation in all accessible zones in June throughout Aweil East County and complements the information given by the MSF-France (6) nutrition survey of April 2008.
Source Action Contre la Faim (ACF)
