KAMPALA, Uganda — South Sudan’s government is blocking desperately needed food aid and restricting United Nations peacekeepers, according to a confidential report by the U.N. secretary-general and a statement by a top U.N. official.
Together, the report and statement show the daunting conditions faced by the international community as it tries to combat a catastrophe in the troubled East African nation.
The internal report from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to members of the Security Council obtained by the Associated Press singles out South Sudan’s government for “the destruction of all the social fabric in all parts of the country” and lists “outrageous” examples of belligerence by South Sudan’s security forces.
South Sudan is impeding humanitarian assistance, said the U.N. humanitarian chief, Stephen O’Brien, after a two-day visit to the country over the weekend.
“People have been displaced, brutalized and raped. They have been attacked when they sought out assistance. This must stop, and it must stop now,” O’Brien said in a statement.
At least 50,000 people have died in South Sudan’s civil war, which began in December 2013 as a result of a struggle for power between President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar.
An estimated 100,000 people are experiencing famine, and another 1 million people are on the brink of starvation, South Sudan’s government and U.N. agencies said in late February. South Sudan is now Africa’s largest migrant crisis as more than 3 million people have either fled the country or become internally displaced, according to the U.N.
The impact of this ongoing conflict and violence has reached disastrous proportions for civilians, Guterres said in the internal letter.
The U.N. Security Council decided in August to send an additional 4,000 peacekeepers to South Sudan, but the government has delayed the arrival of the extra troops.
