WFP suspends operations until the safety of its staff is guaranteed
UN warns that targeted attacks on aid workers threaten aid in South Sudan
May 25. (EUROPE PRESS) –
An armed group looted five trucks loaded with food supplies outside the United Nations compound in Bor, in South Sudan’s Jonglei state, on Tuesday.
The trucks were loaded with 100 tons of humanitarian aid from the World Food Program (WFP) that was going to feed more than 11,000 people for a month. However, the raiders have looted almost seven tons in the attack.
The interim humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan, Peter Van der Auweraert, has “strongly” condemned the “selective” attack: “All looting of humanitarian assets and attacks on humanitarian facilities are absolutely unacceptable,” he asserted.
“Aid workers save lives and must be able to safely deliver vital supplies to those in need,” Van der Auweraert stressed, according to a statement.
The WFP representative in South Sudan, Mary-Ellen McGroarty, lamented that she has had to deal with “a considerable number of attacks against convoys.” “We have no choice but to halt operations at Bor until the safety of our personnel and assets are guaranteed,” she announced.
“This will affect more than a million people in Jonglei and Pibor, many of whom are women and children, who depend on the help provided by the WFP,” he criticized.
Since the beginning of the year, there have been several violent acts against humanitarian personnel and assets, so access to humanitarian aid is continuously affected by inter-communal violence, which has been affected by the conflict in its northern neighbor, Sudan.
“The crisis in Sudan puts millions of families in South Sudan at risk, who need additional humanitarian aid,” Van der Auweraert said, as clashes in Khartoum, which broke out on April 15, have forced thousands of people to flee. run away from their homes. Tens of thousands of people have crossed the border from Sudan to South Sudan, the United Nations estimates that 71,600 people have fled to this country, of which more than 93 percent are returned South Sudanese.
