In the video Presented at the high-level event on South Sudan, Mayen holds a book which he says was given to him by the UN. “It contains the rights of internally displaced people, all those who had to flee from one city to another. When I read this book, I realized that not even 10 percent of my rights were respected. So tell me, am I not a human being? Am I not a displaced person?”
“[The people of South Sudan] are the same as us in every way – they want health care, they want schools, they want to have hope for their future, and the thing they want most is peace,” said UN relief chief Mark Lowcock.
Five years of conflict have left South Sudan grappling with one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Currently, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 7 million people need vital help to survive; one in two people do not know where their next meal will come from; 40 percent of the total population is displaced within and outside the country; two out of three pregnant or breastfeeding women suffer from acute nutritional deficiencies; more than 2 million children are out of school; and only one in ten people have access to basic sanitation facilities.
The event brought together donors, Member States and senior humanitarian officials, including the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan, Alain Noudehou; the Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Program (PAM), Valérie Guarnieri; and the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer.
“We are succeeding against all odds in South Sudan,” said Ms. Guarnieri, referring to the major challenges facing humanitarian workers in terms of access to conflict-affected communities. The lack of infrastructure, she explained, with only 300 km of roads built across the country, makes delivering aid during the rainy season, when 60 percent of the road network is flooded, an almost impossible mission.
Thanks to the massive prepositioning of goods ahead of the rainy season and the use of a complex combination of air, road and river delivery systems, which required careful negotiations with the different warring parties, aid workers are able to reach affected populations, even in very remote areas. In 2017, humanitarian groups supported nearly 5.5 million of the 6 million people targeted with food, shelter, nutrition, medical care, protection and other assistance.
Despite the signing of a peace agreement between the different parties to the conflict last September, insecurity remains a major challenge for the humanitarian response. South Sudan is one of the most dangerous places for aid workers. More than 100 aid workers have been killed since the conflict began in December 2013, including 13 in 2018 alone.
“I call on all those working in South Sudan to respect aid workers and international humanitarian law,” said humanitarian coordinator Noudéhou, who explained that between February and May this year there were several cases of aid workers being detained by armed groups for days or weeks. “We are not a target,” he added.
Much of the event focused on the need to “localize” the response, which means empowering South Sudanese non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
“The people who are on the front line of the response are the national NGOs and they have done an enormous amount of work and they are courageous,” Mr. Noudéhou said.
Angelina Nyajima is the director of Hope Restoration, a South Sudanese NGO working to empower women. At the event, she advocated for more mentoring and more direct funding for national NGOs, as provided for in the localization agenda from the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit.
“We are on the front line, we are with the communities… In a crisis, we are not evacuated,” she said, adding that one day the presence of international organizations will be reduced. “If we are not supervised now, if we do not receive funding now, we will not be able to fend for ourselves. »
Publicado anteriormente en Almouwatin.
