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UN coordinator calls for unconditional freedom of movement for aid workers in South Sudan

Xinhua, April 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

The UN humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, on Thursday called for the unconditional freedom of movement for aid workers, in response to deteriorating conditions for humanitarian organizations in Pagak, in Upper Nile State.

"Aid workers have left the area until conditions improve, after being harassed and threatened," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

In Malakal, the capital of Upper Nile State, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) reported that fighting resumed, including around an airport located about a kilometer south of the mission's compound.

More displaced people are arriving at the mission's site. There are an estimated 19,000 people sheltered in UN compounds across South Sudan.

Tensions within South Sudan, the world's youngest country which only gained independence after seceding from Sudan in July 2011, developed into open conflict on Dec. 15 when President Salva Kiir' s government said soldiers loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar, dismissed in July, launched an attempted coup. Endite