December 23, 2024 08:07 pm (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Cylinder blast at a temple in Karnataka's Hubbali injures nine people | Kuwait PM personally sees off Modi at airport as Indian premier concludes two-day trip | Three pro-Khalistani terrorists, who attacked a police outpost in Gurdaspur, killed in an encounter | Who is Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-American picked by Donald Trump as US AI policy advisor? | Mohali building collapse: Death toll rises to 2, many feared trapped for 17 hours | 4-year-old killed after speeding car driven by a teen hits him in Mumbai | PM Modi attends opening ceremony of Arabian Gulf Cup in Kuwait | Jaipur gas tanker crash: Toll touches 14, 30 critical | Arrest warrant against former cricketer Robin Uthappa over 'PF fraud' | PM Modi emplanes for a visit to Kuwait
UN Photo/Martine Perret

South Sudan: UN confirms looting of homes, hospitals

| | Jun 07, 2014, at 06:09 pm
New York, Jun 7 (IBNS): The United Nations mission in South Sudan on Friday confirmed reports of "intense small arms fire and shelling" close to its base in Renk, Upper Nile state, where some of the 93,000 civilians sheltered by UN peacekeepers throughout the country are staying.
“The Mission continues to call on all parties to respect the work and inviolability of UN premises and protection of civilian sites,” a UN spokesperson told journalists in New York.
 
Also in the Upper Nile, a UN patrol on Thursday in Baliet observed that “most houses, as well as a hospital, have been destroyed and looted”, the spokesperson added.
 
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the country, Toby Lanzer, raised concerns about civilian protection in meetings with Government and security officials this week in Unity state.
 
Lanzer also visited a hospital in the town of Leer, and met with community representatives and humanitarian partners.
 
“Much of the town, including the market and hospital, has been looted and destroyed,” he said. The senior UN official was also told of alleged accounts of sexual and gender-based violence.
 
Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is continuing to airlift food assistance to hundreds of thousands of people to avoid “a hunger catastrophe” in areas isolated by the conflict, spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs said.
 
Four million people – roughly one-third of the population – need urgent humanitarian aid, especially food in the next three months.
 
“The number of severely food insecure people has risen to nearly 1.3 million persons, an increase of 200,000 since January,” Byrs briefed reporters in Geneva.
 
The situation is most dire in the three conflict-affected states of Jonglei, Upper Nile, and Unity, where three-quarters of the population is currently food insecure – a figure that was likely to rise to 85 per cent in the next three months.
 
“The situation is worrying and concerning, but it could be avoided if we had access,” urged Byrs. “WFP appealed to all parties taking part in the conflict to facilitate unimpeded access before conditions deteriorated further.”
 
The UN agency has appealed for USD 475 million until the end of the year to counter enormous logistic challenges during the rainy season.
 
In addition, Byrs said that a convoy of barges carrying 1,200 metric tons of food had been sent from Juba and would sail to Malaka on 9 June.
 
 
 (A woman stands among her belongings in Renk, Upper Nile State, South Sudan. UN Photo/Martine Perret)

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
Related Images
Xi Jinping, Putin in Russia Mar 22, 2023, at 08:26 pm