Southern Sudan facing huge problems, says UN

Khartoum, Friday

About 40 per cent of southern Sudanese are facing a “humanitarian perfect storm”, a UN official said today.

Ms Lise Grande, the Deputy Resident Humanitarian Coordinator in Southern Sudan, in a press conference in Khartoum told reporters that the “Southern Sudan is facing an almost unmanageable set of problems.”

She stressed that three factors — spiralling tribal fighting, massive food cap and budget shortfalls — led to this difficult situation.

Since the independence of the country in 1956, the Southern Sudan remained undeveloped due to the different civil wars in the region.

After the signing of a peace agreement in 2005, the semi-autonomous region did not get the expected international support. Besides allegations of corruption that harmed its image, much of the international effort focuses on Darfur.

“Since January of this year, more than 2,000 people have died in inter-tribal violence and more than 250,000 people have been displaced across the ten states of Southern Sudan,” said Grande to underline the disastrous impact of the tribal fighting in southern Sudan.

Besides, the security concern, the UN humanitarian said the food deficit in southern Sudan is also caused by the late rains.

Ms Grande also said that the semi-autonomous government has been deeply affected by the loss of 40 per cent of its oil revenues. (Xinhua)