UN official urges support for southern Sudan development

November 28, 2008 (JUBA) – World should continue to support the southern Sudan to develop education and healthcare services as well as roads network, the visiting UN relief told reporter and the end of his visit to the semi-autonomous region.

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes, met during his two-day visit, Salva Kiir the First Vice-President and southern Sudan government president and other senior officials in Juba. He also went to Agok in Southern Kordofan where he met some of the 30,000 iIDPs who fled Abyei after last May fighting.

Kiir and Holmes discussed the increasing scale of the needs facing south’s development, as well as mutual concerns about the full implementation of the peace deal signed in 2005, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Southern Sudan is lacking in basic infrastructure as a result of the prolonged civil war. Holmes stressed that the capacity of the Government in the region must be built up so it can take over health-care, education and other services.

“A lot of has been achieved since I was last in Juba less than two years ago, but a huge amount remains to be done,” he said. “The UN must be here for the long haul, to support Government leadership, while the international community as a whole has to keep up its spending. Too much rests on the development of the south and the continued health of the north-south relationship for there to be any other option.”

Health care is a particular concern, with southern Sudan experiencing some of the worst child and maternal health indicators in the world, due in part to exceptionally low immunization rates. One in seven women, for instance, dies as a result of causes related to childbirth.

“It is simply unacceptable in the 21st century that women continue to die in childbirth at such rates, and that children and adults die needlessly of preventable diseases like malaria.

“Distributing mosquito nets to all the population, training enough staff and qualified midwives, and getting them out to the rural communities who are in dire need of primary health care: these must be top priorities.”

During his six day visit the UN official visited Darfur and inspected displaced camps. He also met the local officials and the peacekeeping mission.

From Juba Holmes departed to Khartoum where he is expected to meet government officials, UN agencies and NGOs before concluding his six day visit to Sudan on Sunday evening.

SWIFT SOLUTION FOR LRA

The visiting UN official also discussed in Juba the need to find a quick settlement for the conflict in northern Uganda and the presence of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army in southern Sudan.

Holmes urged strongly the LRA, a notorious rebel group that has waged war against Ugandan Government since the mid-1980s, to follow through on promises to sign a peace agreement tomorrow.

“This is the last chance for them (the rebels) to do so,” Holmes told reporters in the southern Sudan capital Juba.

“I hope they would sign,” Holmes said. “Otherwise, the possibility of going backwards with the LRA in this region is very real. It would be disastrous not only for this country, but also for northern Uganda, Congo and the Central African Republic,” he said

The Ugandan government Friday urged elusive rebel leader Joseph Kony to sign an overdue peace agreement but voiced doubts the Lord’s Resistance Army chief would show up for the weekend signing.

A Ugandan delegation flew into Juba, where they were preparing to travel to Ri-Kwangba, in the jungle of southern Sudan for a planned ceremony Saturday.

(ST)