UN: Shortage of funds to affect aid operation in South Sudan

The UN humanitarian agency has warned that fundingshortfall is likely to endanger aid operations to help 3.2 million people in SouthSudan.The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of the South SudanCrisis Response Plan, which covers January to June, is only 30 percent funded."Of the 887 million U.S. dollars shortfall in funding, 232 million dollars is the bareminimum required for the next three months to avoid the humanitarian situationdeteriorating sharply," OCHA said in a statement.Fighting in the past three months has displaced 1 million people with over 803,000people being displaced within South Sudan and another quarter of a million peoplehave fled to neighboring countries.More than 90 percent of those displaced in the country are in open or rural settings,often seeking refuge in hard-to-access locations without food, clean water or shelter.Without enough food to eat, malnutrition is on the rise.Aid agencies in South Sudan have warned of even more dire humanitarianconsequences if urgently needed funds are not raised in the coming weeks.Humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, Toby Lanzer said the funding neededwill enable rapid response teams to provide lifesaving aid including food, health,nutrition, water and sanitation, to communities in hard-to-reach areas affected bythe conflict. "If donor funding is not made available now, we will be unable to meet the mostbasic needs to keep people alive or prevent a catastrophic decline in food securityfor millions of people at risk later in the year," Lanzer.He said the fund will also enable agencies to preposition relief in these areas aheadof the imminent rainy season so that lifesaving aid continues to be available topeople during the second half of this year, when two thirds of the country becomes inaccessible by road.