German FM urges South Sudan leaders to renounce violenc
January 28, 2024 (JUBA) – The German Foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock has urged South Sudanese leaders to renounce the violence in the electoral process.
She was speaking after meeting President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar in Juba on Friday as part of a tour that saw her visit Kenya and Djibouti.
The official stressed the need for free, fair and peaceful elections in the country.
She emphasized the need for progress in the implementation of the Revitalized Peace Agreement, greater transparency in the management of public finances, increased investment in basic services by the transitional government and the facilitation of safe and unhindered humanitarian access in South Sudan.
While opening a new United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) women’s friendly space at Gorom refugee settlement on Friday, Baerbock has condemned the widespread sexual and gender-based violence women affected by war face.
“Sexual violence and rape are systematically used as a weapon of war. The women I just spoke to suffered the worst – they had to watch their daughters being raped in front of their eyes, they lost their children while fleeing. And then they arrived here in South Sudan and urgently need humanitarian support, water, food, but, above all, what everyone says above all, medical care,” she stressed.
Baerbock welcomed regional efforts to bring about an end to the conflict in Sudan and highlighted Germany’s support for increased pressure on the conflict parties to agree to serious ceasefire negotiations at the highest level and pave the way for a political process with civilian actors, among them women and youth.
“Even though other crises in the world are currently dominating the international agenda, particularly the situation in the Middle East, not a day goes by in Sudan, in South Sudan without thousands of people suffering massively. We are witnessing a terrible civil war in Sudan with hundreds of thousands of victims,” noted.
Also of concerns, she emphasized, is influx of 1,500 refugees from Sudan to South Sudan every day, amid concerns that these camps are already overcrowded.
“In total, over 500,000 people have fled Sudan in recent months, especially women and children. These hundreds of thousands of women and children cross deserts, cover distances on foot that one can hardly walk, with next to nothing on their bodies, but many with incredible wounds, physical and mental wounds. Because the war in Sudan is, above all, a war against women,” said Baerbock.
South Sudan faces one of the worst food crises in the world. Until March 2024 an estimated 5,8 million people, 46 per cent of the population, are projected to be in IPC Phase 3 (serious and critical) and above. For the lean period April to July 2024 the number rises dramatically, with 7.1 million people (56 per cent) projected to be in IPC 3 and above. The IPC projection is that 1.6 million children under 5 years of age are at risk of acute malnutrition, of which nearly 500,000 are at risk of severe acute malnutrition (IPC Integrated Food Security Classification).
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