South Sudan Monitor Urges Rebels, Government to Allow Aid Access

South Sudan’s government and rebels should allow aid groups full access to those in need to avert a worsening humanitarian situation, a peace monitoring group said.

The formation of a transitional government to end two years of civil war will be meaningless if the humanitarian situation in the country isn’t rapidly addressed, Festus Mogae, ex-Botswanan president and chairman of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, said Tuesday in a statement.

“At present only a fraction of the emergency food that needs to be prepositioned, in both Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile, is being delivered, because of restrictions on aid convoys and due to insecurity,” he said, referring to areas in the country’s north.

While 75,000 metric tons of food need to be moved in South Sudan before the dry season end in the next three months, only 5,000 tons are being transported monthly, Mogae said. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than two million forced from their homes since the nation descended into conflict in December 2013.