The Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) continues to operate in South Sudan, where the refugee crisis shows no sign of abating.

In late July, a three person team consisting of Haidar Baqir, ETC Coordinator, Chris Alagna, ICT stand-by partner from RedR Australia, and Magnus Gunnarsson, ICT Officer from Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), flew to Yida, Unity State, to set up the ETC response solution. Consisting of technologies from emergency.lu, Ericsson Response and WFP, the ETC response solution provides connectivity to the humanitarian community operating in the area. 

Yida is in Unity State, which borders Sudan. It is currently home to approximately 60,000 refugees who have fled the fighting in the north, and receives around 800 new arrivals every day. The water and sanitation situation is deteriorating and malnutrition and child mortality have reached emergency levels.  The ETC response solution provides data communications and voice telephony services to relief organizations, allowing them to respond much more effectively to the continuing influx of refugees. It is scheduled to remain in Yida for three months.

The situation in Yida has been complicated by the onset of the rainy season, which has rendered the area inaccessible from the ground. The ETC equipment, which was moved from Pibor after a successful five month mission, was flown in on Logistics Cluster helicopters.

The ETC team also provided a refresher course on radio usage for 27 humanitarian workers from 6 different organizations and will set up a VHF repeater to extend radio coverage to 20-30km, both of which will improve security and coordination for the humanitarian community in Yida.

Read the blog from the deployment team here.