Senior UN relief official completes visit to South Sudan

24 Nov 2014

Senior UN relief official completes visit to South Sudan

21 November 2014 - UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Kyung-wha Kang, concluded her three-day mission to South Sudan today, urging the international community to continue providing support to enable humanitarians to scale up and expand critical aid operations.

Describing the level of violence experienced by South Sudanese civilians as “devastating”, the senior UN relief official also called on all parties to the conflict to respect their ceasefire commitments.

“I was here a year ago and I am heartbroken to see that the promising young country that I saw is suffering so greatly. The scale of the needs is great,” she said. “However much we scale up our operations, we will never be able to do enough if the conflict continues to destroy lives and livelihoods. All parties to the conflict must show leadership and bring peace to this country.”

“Ms. Kang also expressed concern about about the continued occupation of schools by military forces, which she said disrupts learning and services and leaves children exposed to abuse.

“Children must be allowed to have a future. I call on parties to the conflict to ensure that occupation of schools and health facilities by armed elements ends," she said. "Today, the South Sudanese leadership has the responsibility to save this generation of children and ensure that they have access to basic services.”

During her visit, Ms. Kang visited communities affected by the crisis in Juba and Jonglei State. She also met with government representatives and humanitarian partners to discuss ways of improving access and strengthening protection of civilians.

She urged parties to respect international humanitarian and human rights laws that clearly call for the protection of civilians and unhindered humanitarian access to people in need.

A press release issued by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said aid agencies are planning for next year, and are urgently calling for US$600 million by February to kick-start next year’s operations.

“Despite the extremely difficult situation for aid workers, who face active hostilities, access and logistical challenges, as well as threats to their own lives, the United Nations humanitarian agencies and partners have reached more than 3.5 million people with assistance this year, helped avert famine, and brought under control a deadly cholera outbreak,” the statement said.

It noted that the situation remains bleak however, adding that the number of people who are severely food insecure is projected to increase to 2.5 million people in early 2015.

“In the dry season, we need to pre-position life-saving and livelihood supplies to reach all people in need, and carry out key repairs to roads and airstrips so that we can scale up and expand the aid operation,” noted Ms. Kang.