60 aid workers were relocated in parts of South Sudan’s Jonglei State following serious violence and insecurity there, a UN official in South Sudan said.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan, Eugene Owusu, said during a news conference in Juba on Wednesday that humanitarian workers are still facing harassment across the country.

“In carrying out our work as humanitarians to provide much needed assistance to populations and communities in need, humanitarians face repeated challenges to reach people in dire need as a result of insecurity and access denials,” he said.

“The biggest part of access challenges that we have to deal with is not at the national level but rather at the sub-national level. We have codified these incidents; the incidents that have to do with access denials and we are in the process of sharing them with the national government for their action,” he added.

The UN official pointed out that humanitarian partners have already delivered lifesaving assistance and protection to at least 1.6 million people in 2017, including assistance provided to some 400,000 people in locations affected by famine in Leer and Mayendit and locations of higher risk of famine including Koch and Panyijiar.

He appealed to all parties to the conflict to ensure that the environment is conducive to the delivery of aid by ensuring free, safe and unhindered access to all areas in order to avert the spread of famine.