16th June, 2015
The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has reported that some 14,000 South Sudanese, mainly women and children, fled into Sudan over the weekend, describing the situation as emergency within an emergency.
Briefing correspondents on Monday in New York, UN Spokesman, Stephane DuJarric, said the UNHCR registered close to 160,000 refugees in Sudan since fighting broke out in South Sudan in December 2013.
He said that so far, only 10 per cent of the 152 million dollars requested to assist South Sudanese refugees in Sudan had been contributed.
Meanwhile, he said, the humanitarian situation in South Sudan had deteriorated significantly over the past two months with the intensification of military operations in Upper Nile and Unity States.
The spokesman said it was estimated that by July, some 4.6 million people could be severely food insecure, the highest number since the beginning of the crisis.
In another development, DuJarric told reporters that the Under-Secretary-General for Field Support, Atul Khare, welcomed the evaluation report published by the Office of the Internal Oversight Services, on the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN personnel in peacekeeping operations.
The spokesman said the report provides an additional insight on how the implementation of the secretary-general’s zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse is handled, where progress has been made and where challenges still exist.
He told reporters that Khare said that the Department of Field Support is committed to the zero-tolerance policy and implementing the recommendations made in the Secretary-General’s annual report.
He quoted Khare as saying: “any allegation of sexual violence is shocking. Sexual exploitation and abuse when allegedly committed by those who should be protectors is truly abhorrent.”