25 March 2014 - Responding to displaced people’s concerns about venturing outside the UNMISS camp in Bor, Jonglei State, agencies provided them today with firewood for cooking.

“We have children, families and pregnant women and we could not cook our food for three days now because there was no firewood,” said Elizabeth Juk Dair, chairperson of Jonglei Women.

“They killed our brother Showl when he went out of the UNMISS camp to bring some firewood for his children,” Ms. Dair said. “We don’t know who killed (him) since … UNMISS closed the gate. It is not safe outside the gate.”

Mary Goretty, a UN Population Fund gender-based violence specialist, said the agency had conferred with UNMISS Human Rights section about the firewood.

“With the help of IOM (International Organization for Migration) and the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which provided the transport and labour, we got this firewood.”

A displaced woman with a young baby, Martha Jangol, expressed appreciation for the firewood. “I am happy because now I can cook for myself some food and I can breastfeed my baby.”

Mery Beter, a mobilizer in the displaced area clinic, said she had seen children in trees looking for something edible. “Today, as you see, all the women are happy because they got this firewood to cook for their children. It is simple thing but it makes them very happy.”

According to the displaced, some people who had left the camp had disappeared or been kidnapped.

The UNMISS Bor base is sheltering more than 4,000 displaced people, who are mainly women and children.