UN appeals for funds, relief access to S. Sudanese in need of aid

UN top relief official on Sunday called for immediate and unhindered access to South Sudanese in need of aid and urgent funding for the humanitarian appeal. Stephen O’Brien, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator said the UN urgently need additional funding to scale up, sustain and expand life-saving assistance and protection across all of South Sudan.

UN warns risk of famine is real in South Sudan

The UN humanitarian agency has warned that the risk of famine in South Sudan is real for thousands of people in conflict-affected communities and food deficit areas. In its latest report which cited food security and livelihoods experts, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said South Sudanese are likely to face extreme levels of food insecurity in an extended lean season from February to July 2017.

Juba University lecturers strike over detained colleagues

Academic lecturers have indefinitely suspended lessons at the South Sudan’s main University of Juba in protest to arbitrary detention of two academics. Academic staff president Philip Finish Apollo and natural resources lecture Zuher Sule were arrested on Thursday for holding a “secret meeting” after being suspended from the university by Vice Chancellor Prof.

UN chief warns of South Sudan genocide unless world acts

In this Feb. 25, 2016, file photo, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaks to the media in Juba, South Sudan. Ban warned Monday, Dec. 19, that South Sudan will be heading toward genocide unless immediate action is taken to impose an arms embargo and pressure leaders of the world’s newest nation to end hate speech, incitement and violence.

A rare view from inside South Sudan’s most-feared prison

More than 30 political detainees in South Sudan’s most notorious prison face torture, starvation or death, according to a Danish man detained alongside them for over two months before being released in late November. Henrik Tobiesen, a businessman and former United Nations de-mining worker who had lived in South Sudan for 11 years, told The Associated Press he was locked up for 67 days starting Sept.