24 April 2014 - An attack today on a convoy of barges hired by UNMISS to a mission base in Upper Nile State was an example of the difficulties aid agencies and the mission were facing in reaching people in hard-to-access areas, a senior humanitarian official in South Sudan said today.

Vincent Lelei, head of the country’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told UN Radio Miraya that owing to difficulty of movement by land during the rainy season and high expenses involved in airlifting supplies, another option was to use water transport.

“(However), we also cannot move by barges easily (as) violence is also taking place in the rivers and barges are unable to move freely,” said Mr. Lelei.

“Individuals in uniforms opened fire on a convoy of four barges contracted by the peacekeeping mission to deliver desperately needed fuel and food supplies to the mission’s Upper Nile State support base to the north of Malakal,” Acting UNMISS Spokesperson Joseph Contreras told the radio.

An UNMISS press release condemned the unprovoked attack by yet unidentified assailants, which took place on the Nile River, near Barbuoui. According to the statement, spokespersons for both the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and SPLA/M In Opposition forces denied any responsibility.

Two of the barges are carrying a total of 65,000 kilograms of food rations for UNMISS and UN agency personnel and internally displaced persons currently living in the UNMISS compound to the north of Malakal, while a third barge is carrying 372,000 liters of diesel and a fourth vessel is laden with 338,000 liters of jet A1 fuel. All clearances were obtained from the relevant South Sudanese authorities prior to the departure of the convoy six days ago, the statement said.

The attack follows repeated appeals from the mission and humanitarian partners have decried continuing violence and interference that hampers operations to reach vulnerable people with assistance.

“The mission is being impeded from movement and in many other ways (kept) from doing our jobs,” UN peacekeeping chief Hervé Ladsous told reporters in New York yesterday, adding that the UN could no longer operate in “business-as-usual” mode.

The most recent OCHA report said 4.9 million people around the country are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and, according to Mr. Lelei, more than one million are in serious danger if the situation does not improve.

“We are now providing assistance by air… and ensuring that we do quick assessment and quick response to the needs of the people,” he told Radio Miraya. “This is going to be extremely expensive and not everybody will be captured by these services.”

See full text of the press release