Aid Agencies Seek 1.5 Bln USD For Humanitarian Aid In South Sudan In 2019

Humanitarian agencies require 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 to provide live-saving assistance to some 5.7 million people in South Sudan, the government and the UN said Thursday.

JUBA, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Dec, 2018 ) :Humanitarian agencies require 1.5 billion U.S. Dollars in 2019 to provide live-saving assistance to some 5.7 million people in South Sudan, the government and the UN said Thursday.

Alain Noudehou, Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan said the funds are needed to provide life-saving assistance to 5.7 million people affected by conflict, hunger and displacement.

"The goal of the 2019 HRP (Humanitarian Response Plan) is going to center in around three areas: The first one still has to be to make sure that we concentrate our work on lifesaving activities, the second part being that we want to make sure that we make protection at the center of what we do, and the third part of the area is to make sure that while we do that, we find a way also to raise people's ability to cope," Noudehou said.

The UN official said though the intensity of conflict has reduced recently, people will continue to experience the impacts of the conflict through 2019 as hunger, malnutrition and the safety of civilians continue to escalate.

Last year, aid agencies appealed for 1.7 billion dollars and out of that, they were able to get 1.

1 billion dollars which they used to provide food, health, water and sanitation, education, livelihoods, nutrition as well as critical protection to some 4.7 million people.

Hussein Mar Nyuot, Humanitarian Affairs Minister, said the appeal reflects the real situation on the ground.

"Today together we are launching it so that it enables you (aid agencies) to mobilize resources for South Sudan and indeed we need resources," Nyuot said.

"Indeed peace has come home and with peace it doesn't mean that the need will vanish. Actually the need will increase because a lot of people will be coming home," he added.

South Sudan descended into civil war in late 2013, and the conflict has created one of the fastest growing refugee crises in the world.

The UN estimates that about four million South Sudanese have been displaced internally and externally. The country's warring factions signed a new power-sharing deal in September aimed at ending five years of brutal conflict in the world's youngest nation.

Noudehou welcomed the signing of the peace agreement, urging the parties to implement it in order to end the current humanitarian crisis in the east African nation.