South Needs More Help to Rebuild Education, Roads, Health Care - UN Aid Chief

The United Nations relief chief today wrapped up a two-day visit to southern Sudan by calling on international donors to help the region develop basic education and health-care services and quickly build up its road system as it recovers after two decades of civil war.

John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, met President Salva Kiir and other senior officials in the Government of Southern Sudan, which was set up as a result of the 2005 comprehensive peace agreement that ended the north-south civil war.

Mr. Holmes and Mr. Kiir - who met in Juba - discussed the scale of the south's continuing development needs, as well as mutual concerns about the full implementation of the peace deal, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Mr. Holmes - who is also the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator - also assured southern Sudanese officials of the UN's ongoing humanitarian support and urged donors to get behind construction and development initiatives.

Southern Sudan is lacking in basic infrastructure as a result of the prolonged civil war, and Mr. Holmes stressed that the capacity of the Government in the region must be built up so it can take over health-care, education and other services.

"A lot of has been achieved since I was last in Juba less than two years ago, but a huge amount remains to be done," he said. "The UN must be here for the long haul, to support Government leadership, while the international community as a whole has to keep up its spending. Too much rests on the development of the south and the continued health of the north-south relationship for there to be any other option."

Health care is a particular concern, with southern Sudan experiencing some of the worst child and maternal health indicators in the world, due in part to exceptionally low immunization rates. One in seven women, for instance, dies as a result of causes related to childbirth.

"It is simply unacceptable in the 21st century that women continue to die in childbirth at such rates, and that children and adults die needlessly of preventable diseases like malaria.

"Distributing mosquito nets to all the population, training enough staff and qualified midwives, and getting them out to the rural communities who are in dire need of primary health care: these must be top priorities."

Mr. Holmes visited Agok, home to some 30,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled Abyei, a town in an oil-rich area of central Sudan that remains in contention between the north and south despite the peace accord.

During their discussions the Under-Secretary-General and Mr. Kiir also emphasized the importance of a rapid solution to the separate conflict still engulfing the Darfur region of western Sudan.

Members of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a notorious rebel group that has waged war against Ugandan Government forces since the mid-1980s and is accused of recruiting children to serve as soldiers or sexual slaves, have long operated out of southern Sudan, which borders Uganda.

Mr. Holmes and Mr. Kiir strongly urged the leadership of the LRA to follow through on promises to sign a peace agreement tomorrow.

The UN relief chief is now in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, for meetings with Government officials, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). He has already visited Darfur and neighbouring Chad on this visit.

Source:(UN Service published on 28/11/2008)

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Comments (2)

• 03-12-2008 04:12:03 |Unregistered| William Okuch Dak

  All services of SPLM and international and local organizations go to ONE TRIBE,DINKA.

  We mentioned many times that divisive or tribal leader is unfit to lead a country.Garang and Salva Kiir were and are not there for sake of Southereners, but for their tribe for what they have killed as much as they did in the past.

  We are all witnesssing Dinka graduates from different countries around the world are returning to Sudan to hold highest positions in GOSS, Unity and local governments. Example of them are recently graduate returness from Cuba and Calgray-Canada who are currently working in GOSS.
  Beside, what are so called lost boys are dominating nongovernmental organizations around the world and in Dinka areas in Sudan where almost international and local orgainzations operate rather than other areas.

  Consider these statements from above article, "Mr.John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, met President Salva Kiir and other senior officials in the Government of Southern Sudan."

  "Mr. Holmes visited Agok, home to some 30,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled Abyei, a town in an oil-rich area of central Sudan that remains in contention between the north and south despite the peace accord."

  Salva Kiir has directed him to visit Dinka not Southerners.
  You know the meaning of that visit. Mr. Homes will report what he see by his eye and the result of that report shall bring millions of dollar for the benefit of the people he has visit because work UN will be focusing on Dinka people in report.
  I also urge those who are concern about missmanagement of SPLM to make a research about the areas where NGOS operate in South and to know staffs running those organizations.

  Salva Kiir must be ask about who direct Mr. Homes to Dinka areas.
  We need to know and expose the behavior of Dinka to all Sudanese and to Africans and other nations. Let begin now by listing down number of Dinka in government and NGOS to know if Dinka leadership means really New Sudan.

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• 16-06-2010 11:22:50 |Unregistered| Susan

  UN should support disadvantaged people through education rather than support at this time. Scholarship

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