Humanitarian partners in South Sudan have threatened to suspend relief support to some of the country’s desperate population in the wake of continuous attacks on aid workers.
In the past weeks, there have been reported series of attacks on humanitarian workers, road ambushes, killings, and looting of relief properties, hindering aid reaching thousands of people in need in some parts of the country most affected by floods and inter-communal violence.
People in need could crave for the much-needed humanitarian assistance should the trend of attacks on aid workers persists, the humanitarian organizations in South Sudan have warned.
The WFP Representative and Country Director, Matthew Hollingworth and the European Union Ambassador to South Sudan, Christian Bader said such violence has made paints South Sudan as one of the most dangerous countries for humanitarian workers in the world.
“Any kind of violence is hampering and has hampered our ability to effectively and consistently provide support over the last month. And clearly, there has been horrific murder of humanitarian workers taking place in the last two weeks which we are incredibly concerned about.
“Clearly at the time like this where there is accumulation of shocks that community is facing conflict and violence will stop us from helping people immediately and to help them get back on their feet, in the medium and long term,” Hollingworth said.
Last week, the European Union donated 4 million Euro worth COVID-19 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the humanitarian organizations to help combat the spread of the pandemic.
But Christian Bader, European Union Ambassador to South Sudan said it would be difficult to reach out to the people with lifesaving assistance, including delivery of PPE to help prevent coronavirus in remote parts of the country if violence committed against aid workers prevail.
“This is a real worry for us that South Sudan remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for humanitarian workers,” Bader said.
The Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator reported this year that 6.5 million people, more than half the country’s population were food in secure and in need of humanitarian assistance.
Hollingworth said ensuring unhindered humanitarian assistance and reduction in violent conflicts would help avert the situation, calling on parties to the revitalized peace agreement to honor humanitarian law.
“We are calling on all parties to respect humanitarian workers wherever they work in the country to enable them to do their work,” he emphasized.