UN Calls For Humanitarian Aid In Jonglei

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The South Sudan office of the United Nations (UN) Humanitarian Coordination in Juba has announced that limited humanitarian support to rescue victims in Jonglei State is a great challenge that needs to be addressed urgently.

Ms. Lise Grande, the South Sudan UN Humanitarian Coordinator,  released a statement on Saturday stressing that, after preliminary results of an assessment, lack of basic needs has appeared to be a challenge affecting victims in Jonglei State displaced after ethnic conflicts last month.

“Preliminary results of assessments done in hard-hit areas indicate that the most urgent needs include high-nutritional food, clean water, health care and shelter,” Lise said in the statement.

“Most of the people who need assistance have been in the bush for up to two weeks, in many cases without food, clean water or shelter. The most affected areas are Likuangole, Fertait and Bilat Payams of the State which were burnt down during the attacks.

Last month hundreds of people were reported to have been killed and thousands displaced in a retaliatory attack in parts of Jonglei State.This happened in the presence of the already deployed UN peace keeping troops in that State.

Tthe Government had earlier on declared Jonglei State a disaster zone and urged humanitarian agencies to intensify humanitarian assistance.

Lise also pointed out that transportation appeared to be a challenge hindering efforts of humanitarian agencies trying to deliver services to the most affected areas in the State making service delivery very expensive.

“This emergency operation is going to be one of the most complex and expensive in South Sudan since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed in 2005. With the exception of Bomas, the areas we need to access are extremely remote and can only be accessed by air,” she added.

“Delivering assistance by air is highly expensive compared to road transport. Unfortunately, in the areas affected in Jonglei, we don’t have a choice,” Lise continued in the statement.

“Humanitarian partners estimate that at least 60,000 people have been affected by the recent violence, a figure that may rise as partners assess conditions on the ground,” Lise said.

Following the last month attacks and earlier conflicts reported in parts of South Sudan, the UN estimates 350,000 people to have so far been displaced in 2011. 75,000 people have been forced from Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile States into the South Sudan’s Greater Upper Nile region seeking for refuge.
 
She also revealed that, over 360,000 displaced South Sudanese to Sudan during the more than two decades of the civil war have returned from Khartoum and are also in dire need of humanitarian assistance.