South Sudan: UN Humanitarian Official Urges Action to Help South Sudan Avoid Collapse

The top United Nations humanitarian official in South Sudan is sounding the alarm about the dire situation in the country, warning that the world's youngest nation could collapse by year's end if urgent action is not taken to help see its people through the current crisis.

"People are crying out for help," Humanitarian Coordinator Toby Lanzer said in an interview with the UN News Centre. "We're at a really desperate moment in South Sudan."

Less than three years after South Sudan gained independence from Sudan, the fledgling nation has been wracked by a conflict that has left thousands dead and some 870,000 displaced since it first erupted in mid-December. Some 77,000 people have sought protection at UN bases around the country.

"When this crisis erupted in mid-December, I think many of us thought this would be a temporary situation - where people would be inside the United Nations bases. But now we're into the third month and it's very clear to us that people can't go home. They're too scared. They have nowhere to go," said Mr. Lanzer.

A veteran UN official with development, humanitarian and peacekeeping experience in Timor-Leste, Central African Republic and Sudan, among others, Mr. Lanzer stressed the need for the peace talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to bear fruit.

"We need a ceasefire that works, that works for civilians on the ground; that enables them to move, to go back to their homes, to look after their livestock, to plant and to cultivate," he said.

If this happens, it will go a long way to enabling the South Sudanese to get through the current crisis, he added. "But if they can't move, if they cannot cultivate, I really fear that by the end of the year, South Sudan will have collapsed and gone into an even more desperate situation."

There are fears that tens of thousands will be newly displaced amid fresh fighting in Upper Nile state, following heavy clashes and reports of people being killed recently in churches and hospitals in the state capital, Malakal.

Mr. Lanzer, who visited Malakal last week, described it as a ghost town. "The drive from the airport into town takes about 20 minutes. We didn't see a single bicycle, pedestrian, car, not a dog, not a chicken, nothing."