South Sudan: UK humanitarian support
The UK steps up support for South Sudan
The UK has set out its support to South Sudan at the European Commission and United Nations’s high-level event on the humanitarian crisis in Geneva.
Speaking ahead of the high-level event, International Development Secretary Justine Greening said:
A year and a half into the conflict in South Sudan, further fighting has seen entire towns looted or burnt to the ground and more than two million people forced from their homes. We are deeply concerned about reports of serious abuses of human rights, including violence against girls and women.
Millions now urgently need shelter, food and water supplies. We have already helped almost half a million people in South Sudan and we will continue to help lead the international response. But we cannot do this alone and it is clear that this crisis needs further support to stop it from escalating further.
South Sudan is facing a protracted humanitarian crisis and the resurgence of conflict in May 2015 is generating enormous needs. An estimated 50,000 people have been killed during this brutal civil war. Humanitarian groups have evacuated South Sudan, communities have fled their homes into the swamps and vital humanitarian assistance has been suspended, leaving almost a million people dependent on food assistance for survival.
The onset of the rainy season this month brings the risk of malaria, cholera and acute water diarrhoea, and so this vital funding will provide over 4.5 million with food, access to water and health services as part of the UN’s wider Humanitarian Response Plan.
Women and girls have also been adversely affected, with up to 25,000 currently at risk of sexual violence. Recent fighting has been accompanied by grave violations against women and girls ranging from sexual violence, abductions, executions, detention and forced sexual slavery.
The UK committed £132 million to the humanitarian response in South Sudan in 2014. So far in 2015, the UK is providing an additional £40 million in emergency assistance for people affected by the ongoing conflict. This latest package includes:
- £19 million for the rapid delivery of emergency aid including shelter, water, medicine and protection services to meet lifesaving needs of the most vulnerable people;
- £16 million to help with the delivery of food aid in hard to reach locations and to ensure the response system is ready for the growing number of displaced people; and
- £6 million to scale up humanitarian logistical and transport resources on the ground.