Top UN official appeals for more humanitarian funding for South Sudan

The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan is pushing for renewed efforts to have have funding distributed to the young nation to assist thousands of people in urgent need of aid.

“The humanitarian appeal that we launched late last year, is today funded by only 29 per cent. We need more contributions urgently in order to reach people in dire need across the country, as they seek to regain their lives and livelihoods,” said Eugene Owusu, United Nations Humanitarian Co-ordinator for South Sudan during the World Humanitarian Summit

He added that over 60 million displaced worldwide, 2.3 million of them in South Sudan must receive the global attention and support they deserve.

Read #SouthSudan Humanitarian Coordinator, Eugene Owusu, remarks to the press on the WHSummit here: https://t.co/x2aPx1SgIV #ShareHumanity

— UNOCHA South Sudan (OCHASouthSudan) May 26, 2016

The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that up to 5.3 million people are facing severe food shortages in the country.

In January, the UN had called for $1.3 billion in humanitarian aid for South Sudan, where a majority of the population have been driven out of their homes.

The crisis in the country has been getting bleaker despite attempts to end more than two years of fighting, which began in December 2013, after president Salva Kiir fired the first vice President Riek Machar, igniting ethic violence.

Riek Machar’s return to the capital Juba in late April and his subsequent swearing as vice president is seen as a major step towards ending the conflict in the country.