Jonglei state governor calls for further humanitarian intervention
January 18, 15 (BOR) – Thousands of people in South Sudan’s Jonglei state urgently need food and other forms of assistance to enable them resettle in their places, the governor said.
He said many of the people who returned to their homes following several months of normalcy in the state, still need more food and non-food assistance for survival.
“Situation is back to normalcy. After releasing the situation is normal, many people have now came back, the business people are now doing their normal business,” he said.
“The people who have decided to come back also need humanitarian assistance, because when they left, everything was destroyed, so they need to be resettled they need food so that they are settled,” added the governor.
Kong said although the Jonglei situation was relatively calm, people still suspect that fresh attacks could occur in Jonglei state, which would result into more displacements.
“Dispite [the fact that] there is peace in the area, the people are suspicious, they are not stable, they are worried, they are witnessing violations from the rebels, attacking positions of the SPLA, although they are happening in different states, they think at anytime, it can happen here in Jonglei, especially in the greater Bor counties,” he said.
The governor said peace conference at grassroot levels between communities who lost confidence and trust among themselves, would best achieve peace in the country.
“Having hope that there will be peace that is now negotiated in Addis baba, but that peace is not enough, it needs us also to have small conferences here among the people because the grassroots peace conference is the only way to bring trust and confidence that they have all lost,” said Kong.
Linda Etim, an official from the US aid arm (USAID) said Washington was committed to bring more assistance to South Sudan, if the government give humanitarians access to conflict-affected areas.
“We are assured that absolute priority is given humanitarian can access different areas in the state. Our plan is to take the feedback we are getting and come up with some concrete plans about how we can come up with really solid goals that will allow us to actually adjust our assistance,” said Etim.
“We remain committed to provide the assistance is that already coming here and I think, over the next several months during the dry season is going to be one of the most important time periods to make that assistance is given to those people throughout the state,” she added.
USAID has reportedly provided thousands of metric tones of food to South Sudan through World Food Program and Catholic Relief Service to assist needy people.
(ST)