UN seeking aid to assist displaced S. Sudanese

January 20, 2014 (RUMBEK) – The United Nations says it urgently needs assistance to enable it cope with the plight of nearly half a million people displaced by the violence in South Sudan.

A recent report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), showed an increase in numbers of people fleeing their homes due to insecurity, mainly in South Sudan’s Unity, Jonglei and Upper Nile states.

Currently, some 67,400 people, it said, are sheltered at UN bases, with nearly 80 percent of them women and children.

“Aid agencies have so far assisted over 212,000 people, with new response activities set to begin in Lankien, Jonglei State and Nimule, Eastern Equatoria state,” UNOCHA said in a statement.

Meanwhile, an outbreak of Measles has been reported in most parts of the country, mainly Bor, Juba and Malakal, with as many as 200,000 children targeted for vaccination.

Cases of Malaria, authorities say, have also been reported on Lakes state’s Awerial county, while major disease fears have been expressed as people directly get water from the Nile River.

Violence erupted in the South Sudan capital in mid-December and later spread to other parts of the country in what has now been described as the worst conflict in the country’s post-session era.

(ST)