JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Humanitarian organizations in South Sudan said Monday that restricted access to the conflict-hit eastern state of Jonglei has left thousands of people in need of lifesaving medical care and food assistance at risk, as the United Nations raises concern over a growing number of displaced people.
The International Rescue Committee’s country director for South Sudan, Richard Orengo, said that “intensified fighting and the militarization of key areas have forced the suspension of services.”
Medical organization Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French name Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF, said that the government has suspended all humanitarian flights, cutting off medical supplies, staff movement and emergency evacuations. At least 23 critically ill patients, including children and pregnant women, urgently require evacuation, MSF said.
The World Food Program, a Rome-based U.N. agency, has warned that escalating violence threatens to cut off food assistance to hundreds of thousands of people, as nearly 60% of Jonglei’s population is expected to face crisis-level hunger during the upcoming rainy season. The rains typically cut off access roads, and the violence has prevented the early delivery of aid.
Civilians are bearing the brunt of the escalating fighting in South Sudan’s Jonglei State, which is pushing one of the country’s most fragile regions toward collapse and raising fears of a slide back into full-scale war after an eight-year peace deal, the United Nations and aid groups said.
Homes have been destroyed, civilians killed in the crossfire, and families repeatedly forced to flee as fighting between government forces and opposition fighters loyal to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army–In Opposition, or SPLA-IO, spreads.
Forces loyal to opposition leader Riek Machar, alongside allied “White Army” fighters, have recently made gains against government troops.
The U.N. and human rights groups have also expressed alarm over inflammatory rhetoric by a senior army commander, who urged troops advancing in Jonglei to “spare no lives.”
The U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan expressed “grave alarm” at developments that it said “significantly heighten the risk of mass violence against civilians.”
The opposition said that the commander’s words were an “early indicator of genocidal intent.”
Speaking to The Associated Press, government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny called the comments “uncalled for” and “a slip of the tongue.”
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has called on all parties to halt the fighting, protect civilians and ensure safe humanitarian access, saying that South Sudan’s crisis requires a political, not military, solution.
The renewed clashes have displaced more than 230,000 people since December, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA.
The renewed conflict has placed South Sudan’s fragile 2018 peace agreement under severe strain and intensified political tensions before the country’s first general election scheduled for December.
