The United Nations has today appealed for nearly $1.3 billion to fund aid operations in South Sudan. The request comes just after the South Sudanese government allocated $158 million toward efforts to defeat opposition forces.
South Sudan’s Council of Ministers voted Friday to approve a supplementary budget request of 500 million pounds (roughly $158 million) to fund operations against Riek Machar’s opposition forces, and said it would table the measure in parliament on Monday.
Humanitarian fundraising, meanwhile, is being left mostly to the United Nations to handle. Toby Lanzer, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan, called a press conference in Juba to announce an appeal for funds from international donors.
“We now aim to assist 3.2 million people throughout the key areas of the country which have been most affected by the violence or to which people have fled, from now until June,” he said.
Describing planned interventions in the fields of water, sanitation, nutrition, shelter, and livelihoods, the UN official noted that the efforts would come at “a tremendous cost to the international community.”
“For us to operate between now and June, we require $1.27 billion US dollars,” said Lanzer, who also explained that part of this money would be used to pre-position relief supplies such as food for use beyond the six month funding window.
He said, “There is one exception to this remarkable sum of money that we require that goes beyond the month of June, and I want to explain this to you. In terms of food assistance and in terms of other types of lifesaving assistance that we need to pre-position we are actually asking the international community to provide us the sum of money that we require for the entire year.”
Lanzer noted that rainy season conditions after June would make roads impassable, making it critical to have funds before then in order to buy and pre-position relief items for the entire year.
The latest funding appeal comes after aid officials revised the South Sudan Crisis Response Plan. Under the new plan, according to the UN official, more emergency relief organizations will be deploying to South Sudan. “Key aid agencies stayed in the country and we have identified others that are coming in to South Sudan so that we can scale up our operations,” he said.
For his part, Government Spokesperson Michael Makuei Lueth told the press on Friday that government budget reallocations would support three months’ bonus salary for the army. He said the 500 million pounds reallocated to the army would be used for combating the rebellion, Bakhita Radio reported.
Photo: Newly arrived IDPs are registered as they enter the UNMISS Malakal base, January 2014 (IOM)