UN accuses S. Sudan of preventing aid workers from leaving base

The United Nations (UN) Mission in South Sudan on Tuesday accused Juba of preventing UN aid workers from leaving their base in Bentiu.

"Over the past days, aid workers based in Bentiu, the capital of the oil-rich Unity State, have been prevented from leaving the UN base to carry out their work in Bentiu and surrounding neighborhoods," the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan Toby Lanzer said in a press statement.

"This interrupts life-saving assistance, including medical support in hospitals," Lanzer noted.

The UN official further urged the warring parties to respect freedom of action of the aid agencies operating in South Sudan.

However, a South Sudanese official said the move was "precautionary" to ensure safety and security of the international aid workers.

"This is a precautionary measure through which we are seeking to ensure the safety and security of the UN personnel and international aid workers", South Sudanese Information Minister Michael Makuei told Xinhua.

"There is a security situation known for everybody, therefore we issue orders from time to time for them not to move, particularly in the areas witnessing security tensions," he noted.

Makuei also lashed out at the UN mission in South Sudan, saying "in many occasions the UN personnel do not listen to the government instructions and behave as if they are the government."

Besides South Sudan, UN mission in Sudan also found itself in a tight corner. On Sunday, the Sudanese authorities said that they decided to file criminal suits against the the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

Khartoum accused the UNAMID of killing seven civilians at Kass locality in Sudan's South Darfur State, while the mission said it was in a state of self-defense.

Khartoum says it has many justifications to demand the mission's exit, including that UNAMID has failed to fulfill its task and become a burden for the Sudanese government.

South Sudan plunged into violence in December 2013, when fighting erupted between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and defectors led to his former deputy Riek Machar.

The conflict soon turned into an all-out war, with the violence taking on an ethnic dimension that pitted the president's Dinka tribe against Machar's Nuer ethnic group.

The clashes have left thousands of South Sudanese killed and forced around 1.9 million people to flee their homes. Enditem