A senior United Nations official has met with members of South Sudan’s warring SPLM-Juba faction to discuss forming a joint committee to address humanitarian access questions, and to resolve differences as to the functions of the proposed committee.
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Kyung-wha Kang said at a press conference on Friday that the committee has been planned ever since the Oslo donors’ conference earlier this year, but the two sides were slow in setting it up.
She was speaking during a visit to Juba, which is controlled by the SPLM-Juba faction and also serves as a humanitarian hub.
Kang said that she met with “higher-level authorities” to help address some unresolved issues, noting, “the idea of forming a joint mechanism to follow up on the Oslo commitments have not yet [been] implemented.”
She disclosed, “The interpretation of what that agreement says is a bit different, between the international community and the… authorities here.”
The aid official may have been referring to attempts by the Juba faction to gain control over disbursement of funds pledged at the Oslo conference.
“I think it’s taken time for the government to come around to providing their participation and their membership into this joint follow up committee. And that was one of the points that we discussed and hopefully that joint committee will be up and running very soon,” she said.
Recently the leader of the SPLM-Juba faction accused the UN Mission in South Sudan of sheltering his enemies at its bases around the country. Previously also he has blamed “so-called humanitarian organizations” for encouraging rebellion.