Escalation of violence unprecedented in S Soudan

A prominent international relief agency has warned that the speed and scale of violence in South Sudan over the past six weeks has been unprecedented.

On Wednesday, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it is especially worried about the huge number of people who have been displaced ahead of the rainy season.

“The forthcoming rainy season is a big worry with the hunger gap and extreme level of displacement. The scale is huge, even with our capacity and long experience working in the region, we are concerned for the people we cannot yet reach,” said the agency’s operation manager, Chris Lockyear.

Lockyear added that the displaced people are in urgent need of fundamental support including shelter, food, water and health services.

“What’s happened is massive. The situation is changing rapidly and so we’ve had to be dynamic and scale up in how we’ve responded,” he stated.

On Tuesday, the United Nations urgently requested for $1.27 billion to assist approximately 3.2 million people suffering humanitarian crisis in South Sudan.

“The priority is to save lives now, and ensure that we have food, medicine and other lifesaving supplies prepositioned in the field, in easy reach of aid agencies before the rains hit and the roads become impassable,” said the UN’s top aid official in South Sudan, Toby Lanzer.
The crisis began on December 15, 2013, after clashes erupted between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebels allied with his former vice president, Riek Machar.

On January 23, South Sudan and the rebels signed a ceasefire agreement to end weeks of heavy fighting, but combat has yet to end as reports indicate continued clashes in the world’s youngest nation.

The two sides accuse each other of violating the ceasefire agreement.