Famine and Pestilence Increasing In South Sudan

By C. J. Refsland on January 9, 2013 • ( 0 )

‘Turning up heat’

“The humanitarian status of these people is truly appalling,” Mr Ging told reporters in New York, following a briefing on the issue at the UN Security Council.

A boy who fled the conflict in Sudan's Blue Nile waits outside a clinic in Doro refugee camp, South Sudan. Photo: March 2012

Thousands of people have fled their homes in Blue Nile and South Kordofan

The UN said as many as 700,000 people were affected in the region, with many surviving on roots and leaves.

Fleeing from Sudan’s Nuba Mountains

Sudan’s tangled conflicts fuel border battles

In pictures: Sudan’s Nuba mountains conflict

South Kordofan: ‘Bombings, blood and terror’

Map

“If we don’t find a solution… then the inevitable consequence is more people will die, more needless humanitarian suffering will occur and more displacement into South Sudan and Ethiopia,” he warned.

Mr Ging said humanitarian organisations were deeply frustrated as they were ready to deploy with large stocks of food and medicine.

He also appealed to the Security Council for help.

The US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, agreed that both warring parties were to blame, but said the government in Khartoum bore the greater responsibility.

She also said that Washington favoured “turning up the heat” on the on the parties, following last year’s Council resolution which threatened sanctions.

However, some other Council members are less critical of Khartoum, noting its right to defend itself from an armed rebellion, the BBC’s UN correspondent Barbara Plett in New York reports.

The government in Khartoum accuses South Sudan of backing the rebels

– a claim denied by Juba.

More via BBC News – Humanitarian crisis in Sudan south gets worse, says UN.