As part of the joint United Nations (UN) interagency Flash Appeal for Sudan, IOM is urgently seeking USD 422,000 to deliver much-needed relief assistance to some 33,000 particularly vulnerable flood-affected households in Northern and Southern Sudan. The funding will allow IOM to bring emergency shelter materials and non food items (NFI) such as plastic sheeting, blankets, mosquito nets, cooking sets, jerry cans and sleeping mats to families living in often difficult-to-reach areas.  As part of the on-going relief effort and in coordination with the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC), the Government of National Unity (GoNU), the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), IOM aims provide secondary emergency transportation assistance from the towns of Kosti, Kassala, Port Sudan and Damazin to remote flooded areas. Assistance for Southern Sudan will also be sent from Khartoum using planes and, whenever possible, barges and trucks. "The logistics of the aid operation are incredibly complex as many of the roads we've used in the past to return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been washed away," says IOM's Mary Giudice. "IOM is looking into other means of delivering assistance, including by barge along the river Nile to South Sudan." With funding from Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and the Common Humanitarian Fund (CHF), IOM has already delivered a total of 500 NFI kits to particularly vulnerable families who have lost everything to the floods in and around Bentiu in Unity State. An additional 1,500 NFI kits are currently being distributed. Some 400 tents provided by the UNJLC's "Common Pipeline" will be delivered by IOM to families in Bentiu once new funding is secured. The floods, the worst in living memory, have already affected some 420,000 people with a further 270,000 people currently at risk. In Northern Sudan, flash-flood warnings have been issued for Northern Kordofan, White Nile, Kassala, and Red Sea States, as well as Northern, Southern and Western Darfur. In Southern Sudan, where the Government has issued a flood disaster declaration in six states, the situation remains particularly critical in Renk County in Upper Nile. For further information, please contact: Simona Opitz IOM Khartoum Tel: + 249 9123 39700 Email: "mailto:sopitz@iom.int" target="_blank" title= "">sopitz@iom.int