WUNRN
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A
southern Sudanese woman recovers from a gunshot wound after surviving a
recent massacre (file photo): Officials say women and children are now being
deliberately targeted in escalating attacks |
NAIROBI,
4 September 2009 (IRIN) - Women and children are being increasingly targeted in
the escalating attacks against communities in Southern Sudanese states,
exacerbating the dire humanitarian situation, say officials.
"We
have seen a drastic escalation in violence across Southern Sudan this year -
from the Equatorial States besieged by LRA [rebel Ugandan Lord's Resistance
Army] attacks, to the brutal clashes in Jonglei, Upper Nile and Lake
States," Jonathan Whittall, head of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Southern Sudan, said.
"The
violent clashes are different to the traditional 'cattle rustling' that
normally occurs each year," he said in a 3 September statement.
"Women and children, usually spared in this fighting, are now deliberately
targeted and the number of deaths [is] higher than the number of wounded."
On 1
September, Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul Yak of the Episcopal Church said the
church no longer viewed the clashes as "tribal conflicts", but rather
as "deliberately organized attack[s] on civilians by those that are
against the peace in
At
least 140,000 people have been displaced by clashes between communities in
Jonglei, Upper Nile and
"This
combination of violent attacks across the region aggravates an already dire
humanitarian situation for the people of
In the
latest attack, 42 people were reported killed in a 29 August clash between
communities in
"In
the last six violent incidents that MSF responded to in Jonglei and Upper Nile
States over the last six months... 1,057 people were killed in contrast to 259
wounded, with more than 60,000 displaced," the medical charity said.
"This is new - the intention is to attack a village and to kill. The
result is a population living in total fear, with significant humanitarian and
medical needs."
Undermining CPA
Continuing
violence, the Archbishop warned, could damage the smooth implementation of the
2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), under whose auspices elections are
being planned for 2010 and a referendum on possible Southern autonomy in 2011.
|
Airdropping food aid (file
photo): Poor rainfall, insecurity and high cereal and low livestock prices
have created an urgent food security situation in |
"The
timeframe given for the elections and referendum is already too short for the
democratic processes to be effectively organized, and by the provisional dates
chosen for voting... much of the South will already be suffering from logistics
problems caused by the onset of the wet season," he warned in a statement.
"This
is an indication to the citizens of the
Food shortages
Separately,
the UN World Food Programme warned that an
urgent food security situation had been created in the region by poor rainfall,
continued high levels of insecurity and high cereal and low livestock prices.
According
to the recently released Annual Needs and Livelihood Assessment Mid-Year Review,
about 1.5 million people in Southern Sudan face severe food insecurity, while
aid delivery has been complicated by insecurity and poor roads.
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