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(IRIN) – Thick dust clouds obscure the horizon as the convoy of UN military observers sets off to patrol the oil-rich, yet desperately underdeveloped Unity State in Southern Sudan.

In these borderlands, monitoring a 2005 deal that halted decades of war between north and south is a major undertaking.

“We set up a forward operating base, from where we travel to collect first-hand information on the situation,” said Andrew Wilson, one of four military observers on a patrol of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).

This four-day “long-range patrol” is designed to gather information as well as boost confidence by showing a greater UN presence in more remote areas.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88568

(IRIN) – Major routes in Sudan have been cleared of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXOs) but there are still areas where the devices threaten civilians, as well as affecting aid and development efforts, say officials.

“The existence of landmines… continues to hamper the delivery of humanitarian aid and the return of refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs),” Margaret Mathew Mathiang, deputy chair of the South Sudan De-mining Authority (SSDA) in Juba, told IRIN.

At least 1,903,729 returnees were projected to return home in Southern Sudan by June 2009, according to the International Organization for Migration.

“The implementation of humanitarian and development projects in this crucial post-war period is also affected. For instance, three bulldozers were blown up [along] a certain road in Eastern Equatoria [while] on a road expansion mission,” Mathiang said.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88073

PlusNews – Southern Sudan’s poor infrastructure, largely illiterate population and dearth of health facilities and workers mean that despite five years of peace, HIV programmes are still in their infancy.

There are no national-level statistics on HIV prevalence or incidence, further hampering the fight against the pandemic, but a 2007 site-specific antenatal surveillance by the US Centres for Disease control found prevalence levels ranging from as low as 0.8 percent in Leer, Unity State, to as high as 11.5 percent in Tambura, Western Equatoria State.

“We use an estimate of 3.1 percent for the south, and we know that the epidemic is more concentrated in big towns and areas near the border with our neighbours who have higher prevalence, such as Kenya and Uganda, but so far we have not conducted a survey of HIV indicators,” Bellario Ahoy Ngong, chairman of the South Sudan AIDS Commission (SSAC) told IRIN/PlusNews.

Read more – http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87979

IRIN – Several states in Southern Sudan are facing food shortages due to widespread drought and conflict, officials said.

“The yield of the [sorghum] crop was generally poorer in some locations in 2009 than in 2008,” John Chuol, a member of a government team that conducted an assessment of the food situation in five states, said.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87695

IPS – As U.S. special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration defended the Barack Obama administration’s new policy toward the war-torn country on Capitol Hill Thursday, NGOs and a U.N. official reacted with disappointment and impatience.

Before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, Gration faced persistent questioning from some members of Congress over the policy’s inclusion of carrots alongside the sticks favoured by most international organisations.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=49546

IPS – The guns have gone silent – except for sporadic conflict in parts of the vast South Sudan region, such as the Eastern Equatoria State. It may not be the absolute end of the conflict in the region, but it is a reason for renewed hope.

It has been two decades of bitter civil war in Sudan, the southerners bearing the burden of massive destruction which has left an estimated 1.9 million people dead and four million displaced, according to United Nations agencies.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=49337

UN – At least 10 people have been killed in a new round of inter-tribal clashes in Darfur, the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force to the war-scarred region of western Sudan reported today.

Read more – http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=32742&Cr=darfur&Cr1=

UN – Sudan is one of the world’s more dangerous places for mothers, the top United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) official there said today, calling for increased maternal care services.

Read more – http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=32729&Cr=sudan&Cr1