UN seeks 200 million dollars urgently in S. Sudan

UN seeks 200 million dollars urgently in S. Sudan

The United Nations has said that it needed 200 million dollars urgently to cope with the humanitarian crisis in southern Sudan.

The call on Friday, by UN's top humanitarian official in the south, Lise Grande, comes less than a month before the vast region declares its independence.

Grande said that the funds will enable the humanitarian body replenish needed stocks and equally get them in place.

"It really is a race against time at this stage because with the rainy season at its height, in probably less than two weeks large parts of the south will be inaccessible so we need to do it right now. We can't wait," she said.

Grande said at least half a million people were now "on the move" in southern Sudan, including more than 300,000 who have returned ahead of independence, and more than 200,000 who have fled violence.

Conflicts

The South Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) is fighting at least seven rebel militias, and tribal clashes erupt routinely over resources. More than 1,500 people have died in the violence this year, the United Nations says.

Grande said some rebel militia were laying land mines. "It's a terrible tragedy, a number of counties that have been declared mine free have seen fresh mines being laid."

Abyei dispute

Roughly half of the displaced people in the south have fled the hotly-contested Abyei region since the north rolled tanks and troops into the area on May 21.

An unresolved dispute over who should control the fertile, oil-producing area has complicated the secession.

Nearly 113,000 people have fled violence in Abyei, according to a U.N. report released on Friday, which added that northern and southern troops were moving closer to each other.

"UNMIS (the U.N. mission in Sudan) confirmed the movement of SAF (Sudan Armed Forces) troops from Abyei town south towards the bridge and SPLA troops north from Agok and Twic County," the report said.

The SPLA accused the north on Wednesday of attacking their positions in the south of Abyei, a claim the north denied.

Southerners voted in January to divide Africa's largest country in two, a poll promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war with the north. Some two million people died in the conflict over ideology, ethnicity, religion and oil.

There has been crisis in the south since the vote, resulting to mass movement of people creating a humanitarian emergency.

Analysts say the south risks being a failed state at birth if it cannot bring rampant insecurity and displacement under control.

Talks between the two long-standing rivals have continued in neighbouring Ethiopia since Sunday. Officials said on Friday negotiators had yet to reach a final deal over Abyei, despite an agreement "in principle" for the north to withdraw its troops.

REUTERS/Williams