The UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator successful South Sudan has strongly condemned the sidesplitting of a UN-contracted assistance idiosyncratic connected Sunday, that besides near different injured, aft the convoy they were travelling successful came nether attack.
In a property merchandise issued connected Monday, Matthew Hollingsworth, said the World Food Programme (WFP) convoy had been deliberately targeted, and demanded that authorities “make each effort to bring the perpetrators to justice” ensuring that communities are protected on with “humanitarian personnel and assets across the country.”
“In a week erstwhile galore families prepare for celebrations and festivities, teams of assistance workers across this state bash everything successful their powerfulness to enactment vulnerable people successful need”, said the acting elder humanitarian official.
“An incident of this nature against humanitarians and humanitarian assets is unacceptable unacceptable...These vehicles were intelligibly marked. I indispensable judge that this was a targeted onslaught and a usurpation of planetary humanitarian law. This behaviour indispensable stop", added Mr. Hollingworth.
Reports bespeak that connected 19 December, equipped men attacked the convoy of 5 amphibious vehicles between Tindiir and Duk Padiet successful Jonglei State, spraying them with bullets, according to the property merchandise issued by the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA.
The squad was returning from Tindiir, wherever they had delivered critical live-saving nutrient assistance for people adversely deed by flooding successful the region, erstwhile it was ambushed.
“These specialized vehicles were clearly marked arsenic humanitarian vehicles and are the only means that enable deliveries to flooded zones”, OCHA stressed.
Mr. Hollingsworth said that fixed each of greater Jonglei has suffered from flooding in the past 3 years, “it is wholly irrational that perpetrators that travel from this region, whose families would person benefited from their deliveries successful the caller past, attacked these brave assistance workers delivering humanitarian assistance to susceptible communities."
'Senseless acts'
“These senseless acts of violence compromise our ability to continue assisting people in remote and difficult to reach flooded areas”.
People successful Duk County were significantly impacted by flooding in 2020 and again in 2021, wherever determination are approximately 130,000 radical estimated to beryllium successful need.
UN effect teams are leveraging as overmuch enactment arsenic possible to provide food assistance for these people, including 17,000 children under-five, who payment from life-saving nutrition support.
Since March 2021, determination has been an summation successful the fig of equipped attacks against civilians and especially against humanitarians and humanitarian assets crossed South Sudan.
5 humanitarians killed successful 2021
This incident marks the 5th decease of an assistance idiosyncratic successful the tract during 2021 successful South Sudan. Most of those killed were South Sudanese colleagues, said OCHA, reiterating that specified incidents disrupt humanitarian operations connected behalf of the most vulnerable.
“Every humanitarian assistance idiosyncratic successful this state has the close to transportation retired their enactment successful a harmless and secure environment. Perpetrators of such heinous acts must be brought to justice”, said Mr. Hollingsworth.
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