25 August 2014 - Thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) continue to live in dire conditions at the UNMISS base in the Unity State capital Bentiu because of a persistent security threat outside, UN Humanitarian Coordinator Toby Lanzer said yesterday.

Mr. Lanzer, accompanied by the British and Dutch ambassadors on a two-day visit, described a situation where heavy rains have left more than 40,000 people seeking refuge with no dry place to stay and sharply deteriorating sanitary conditions.

"You know one question I ask myself is 'why are people here?'... I have been to the centre of Bentiu and it is dry, yet people are choosing to be here, knee-deep in mud and water,” he said. “Clearly it’s because there is a palpable sense of fear and foreboding... They have told me this: The only place that they feel safe is here in the UN base."

The Acting UNMISS Chief stressed that although aid agencies are working with the mission to “try and make a terrible situation just a little bit less hard”, the ultimate solution is for South Sudan’s leaders to end the conflict.

“What we in the UN want is peace so that people can get on with their lives,” he said. “The single most important factor here is peace, or the lack of it.”

Mr. Lanzer said the joint visit with UK Ambassador Ian Hughes and Netherlands Ambassador Robert van den Dool was a sign of moral support and true engagement by important member states in the work of the United Nations, both on the peacekeeping and humanitarian sides.

"This is not the first (protection) site I am visiting as a British Ambassador, but it is definitely the worst,” said Mr. Hughes. “There is something completely inhuman about the living conditions here day in, day out. It is wrong.”

He reiterated that although the UN is doing its best to help people seeking shelter in its bases and in other locations, the best thing would be for them to be able to go home.

“That requires a lot of work,” said Mr. Hughes. “It requires leadership on the part of the South Sudanese government and the opposition to find solutions that will end this conflict that causes tens of thousands to have to live like that.”

Mr. van den Dool, the newly appointed Dutch Ambassador, said that although it was his first visit to a protection site, what he had seen was “totally appalling”.

“It illustrates how necessary it is that the fighting stops so that people will be allowed to go back to their homes peacefully, because to live here is not human,” he said.