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| Senior UN humanitarian officer John Ging briefs reporters after a closed meeting of Security Council [PHOTO: UNifeed] |
New York: A UN humanitarian officer told the Security Council that aid attempts
for Sudan and South Sudan are failing and doomed to further failure unless
there is a political will to work towards gaining access to the areas in need.
John Ging, Director of the Operational Division of the
UN's Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told the council
that the UN and other agencies have enough food and essentials to serve the 900,000 people in need in the
area and all they need is access.
"We don't need more process we need more access,"
he told reporters after a closed meeting of the Security Council, "and
again we need it urgently and desperately and that was my message to the
council."
"We are engaged incredibly intensively in negotiations
and discussion in an endeavour to broker an agreement. But we have to call it
as it is. So far we have failed. What are the prospects? Continued failure
unless there is more political will to turn that failure into success," he
said.
US Ambassador Susan Rice reminded reporters that leaders of
Sudan and South Sudan had reached an agreement on humanitarian access last
September and had met again over the last weekend.
She said, "the parties must now finally move from
rhetoric to action, by clearing implementing the agreements reached in Addis
Ababa without further delay." -UNifeed