Driving home from work yesterday I was listening to National Public Radio and heard a report on the situation developing in the Jonglei state of South Sudan. It was an informative piece describing the deteriorating situation with tribal clashes between the Lou Nuer and Murle tribes. Unfortunately, there was no mention of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). It was a nice reminder of how this blog can help share how the ELCA and our partners are engaged in disaster response work around the world. For in Jonglei, the LWF is very active and has been on the forefront of the response.

I invite you read the third update from Arie Den Toom, LWF South Sudan Representative, on how the situation and response are developing: South Sudan – 3rd Sitrep on the conflict in Jonglei State

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The Action by Churches Together (ACT) Alliance is mobilizing its funding channels to respond to the situation in Jonglei. The response is being implemented by the Lutheran World Federation. The situation in Jonglei has been declared a “humanitarian disaster area” by the government in Juba. Two local ethnic groups, the Lou Nuer and Murle, have continued escalating violence of the past few months, leading the UN to estimate more then 60,000 people being displaced.

To learn more, read the ACT Update: ACT launches humanitarian response, calls for peace in Jonglei.

Also, you can read an earlier post with situation reports from LWF: South Sudan: Crisis Unfolds in Jonglei State.

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Two recent reports from Arie Den Toom, the LWF South Sudan Country Representative, give an overview of the situation in Jonglei State in South Sudan. The area has been declared by the government as a disaster zone following clashes between two ethnic groups, the Lou-Nuer and the Murle. The two groups have been locked in a feud that involving cattle raids and abductions. According to Arie Den Toom, between 20,000 and 50,000 members of the Murle community have been displaced over the last seven months. There have also been over a 1,000 casualties from the fighting.

This area is also the center of the LWF’s work in the area and so they have been very involved in tracking the situation and formulating a response. Please keep the people of the region in your prayers as hostilities hopefully cease and people begin to move back to normal activities. Also, read more about the situation in the two LWF reports:

• 1st SitRep on Crisis Unfolding in Jonglei State (Jan 5, 2012)
• 2nd SitRep on Crisis Unfolding in Jonglei State (Jan 9, 2012)

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A new post on the Lutheran World Federation-Department of World Service (LWF-DWS) blog “Fruit Salad” gives an update on the situation in Dollo Ado. This is the camp is located on the Ethiopian side of the Somalia-Ethiopia border. The LWF works here to provide water and sanitation services. The camp has received tens of thousands of new arrivals from Somalia following the drought and famine crisis that continues to affect the Horn of Africa. In May-June 2011 alone, the camp took in over 55,000 new Somali arrivals.

This new update shows that the number of arriving refugees has dropped slightly from 170/day to 100-160/day. Yet, because of the massive number of earlier arrivals the transit camp (first stop for refugees) still has over 8,000 refugees waiting to gain access to the main camp area. The transit camp was originally designed to hold a maximum of 1500. LWF in its work to provide water and sanitation has had to truck in water to meet the increased demand. They have also upped waste management cleaning to a daily activity.

Within the main site a new camp (Bur Amino) has opened with a planned capacity of 40,000. So far 3,000 refugees have moved into this new camp. LWF is working to provide water not just for the refugees but the host community (local Ethiopian community) as well.

Read the full update: Update on Dollo Ado Refugee Camps 27th December 2011

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Gifts to ELCA International Disaster Response allow the church to respond globally in times of need. Donate now.

In mid-December the ELCA, through its International Disaster Response program, approved a disbursement of $102,337 to support a Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Community-Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) project in the Turkana district of Kenya. Now you might be wondering what CMDRR is or you might be wondering why it needs to be instituted in Turkana. And you might even be asking where Turkana is. Well I’m glad you asked. This post will answers these three questions. If you have any others, please share them in the comments.
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The situation at the Dollo Ado refugee camp in southern Ethiopia has started to stabilize with the number of new arrivals dropping from 200-300/day in early November to 200-300/week in mid-December. Though the area continues to be plagued by heavy rains and flooding. This has led to difficulty in the delivery of aid like food and water as well as the processing of refugees in the transit center. A welcomed new camp, Bur Amino, has opened and the first few hundred residents have begun to arrive. With a population max of 80,000 this new camp is expected to help alleviate the overcrowding in the other camps and at the transit center.

To learn more, check out the LWF Update.

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Gifts to ELCA International Disaster Response allow the church to respond globally in times of need. Donate now.