Juba – The International Organization for Migration’s Displacement Tracking Matrix’s (IOM DTM) sixth mobility tracking report shows a slight decrease in the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in South Sudan.

Round six of DTM mobility tracking covered 2,312 locations in 78 counties in the country, mapping the presence of 1,465,542 people displaced since 2014.

The available data shows that a third of the IDPs are residing in five counties (Rubkona, Wau, Juba, Awerial and Yei).

“Whilst the number of returns per month increased in the period following the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), new and protracted displacement has caused the overall number of IDPs in June to remain similar to that captured in March 2019” said Izora Mutya, IOM South Sudan’s Head of Operations.

DTM mapped the presence of 336,658 returnees who arrived at their habitual residence since January 2019 representing a quarter of all 1,271,487 individuals who have returned since 2016. More than a third of all 1,271,487 returnees had previously been displaced abroad.

Since round five in March 2019, DTM has tracked 7.4 per cent more returnees with an increase of 7.6 per cent when considering only the same locations covered.

However, the monthly average number of IDPs arriving at their current location within the first half of 2019 through a change of host area or renewed displacement was higher than the monthly average in 2018 (27,163 vs 22,998 IDPs per month).[1]

The average number of individuals who returned per month in 2018 after R-ARCSS was three times higher than in the months of 2018 leading up to the peace agreement.

Whilst the average number of returns per month in the first half of 2019 was not as high as in the initial three months following the signing of the R-ARCSS, it remained 69 per cent higher than in the months before R-ARCSS in 2018.

This latest data from IOM DTM round six mobility tracking has been used to reset the IDP baseline from 1,829,223 to 1,465,542 internally displaced people. This is in line with the results of an 18-month-long review and rationalization exercise between IDP datasets maintained by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and IOM DTM.

For more information and available products, please visit https://displacement.iom.int/south-sudan

For more information, kindly contact Nabie Loyce in IOM South Sudan. Tel +211912380115, email: nloyce@iom.int