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UN / SOUTH SUDAN O’BRIEN
STORY: UN / SOUTH SUDAN O’BRIEN
TRT: 2:26
SOURCE: UNIFEED-UNTV / UNMISS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 10 AUGUST 2016, NEW YORK CITY
RECENT – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UNHQ exterior
10 AUGUST 2016, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Stephen O’Brien, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs:
“I expressed in clear terms my shock and dismay at the appalling reports of violations committed against civilians during fighting in recent months, including in Juba. In particular, I condemned the heinous acts of sexual violence carried out against women and girls including by members of the armed forces. I also reiterated the need for humanitarians to be granted free, safe, and unhindered access to all people in need, wherever they may be, and for humanitarian workers and their assets to be respected.”
4. Med shot, reporter asking question
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Stephen O’Brien, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs:
“Humanitarian workers are risking their lives while risking their own. And I am appalled that they continue to be harassed, targeted, and killed. When I visited last year, 27 of our colleagues had sadly lost their lives and many more were missing and unaccounted for; today the number of aid workers killed since December 2013 in 57. This is unacceptable and unconscionable, and I urge the president to take immediate action to end the impunity that has prevailed to date.”
6. Med shot, reporter asking question
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Stephen O’Brien, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs:
“Let’s be clear, we will not be able to reach the people who need us and who have needs, and there will be people who suffer. And we will move from being in a deep food insecurity to worse, but I won’t speculate as to where we going into the international definitions of moving beyond that.”
8. Wide shot, press room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Stephen O’Brien, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs:
“Naturally I would ask: ‘and where are the men?’, to which the answer was: ‘well they tried to leave with us and they were either abducted or killed on the way out and they’re not around.’ So you can imagine you get a lot of very brave people giving you a conversation, but they very sadly tend to break down in tears by the time they get to the end of the sentence. These are really stressful pressurised situations.”
10. Wide shot, press room
RECENT – UNMISS - WAU, SOUTH SUDAN
11. Med shot, O’Brien walking through camp
12. Various shots, O’Brien meeting with aid workers
RECENT – UNMISS - AWEIL, SOUTH SUDAN
12. Med shot, mother and malnourished child in hospital
13. Wide shot, O’Brien visiting patient
United Nations humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien said the situation he saw in Wau and Awil was emblematic of the “devastating fate that has befallen” South Sudan.
Speaking to reporters in New York today (10 Aug), O’Brien said while the two locations he recently visited were considered “beacons of hope” last year, one was now “mired in conflict” and the other was facing the worst food insecurity it had seen in many year and was “at real risk of getting worse.” He said since December 2013, over two million people had fled their homes, with some 1.6 million displaced internally. O’Brien said some 900,000 fled to neighbouring countries including 70,000 who crossed into Uganda as refugees over the last month. He said 4.8 million people were severely food insecure in South Sudan while 250,000 children were severely malnourished.
The humanitarian chief said during his meeting with President Silva Kiir, he expressed “in clear terms” his shock and dismay “at the appalling reports of violations committed against civilians during fighting in recent months.” He condemned “the heinous acts of sexual violence carried out against women and girls including by members of the armed forces” and called for unhindered access for aid workers.
O’Brien said the humanitarian response for South Sudan was underfunded by over $700 million. He said without these funds, the UN and its partners would not be able to reach the people in need and “there will be people who suffer.”
O’Brien said people in many cases were required to return to places from which they fled in order to register to receive humanitarian assistance as required by the government. He said this left women particularly vulnerable, who often had to leave children in the protection sites to guard their belongings. O’Brien said when he asked women he met where the men were, the answer was “they tried to leave with us and they were either abducted or killed on the way out and they’re not around.”
O’Brien had returned from a three day visit to South Sudan in effort to assess the situation on the ground and renew calls for funding. During his trip, O’Brien met with humanitarian and medical aid workers at a protection of civilians site in Wau and a hospital in Aweil. He also met with several government officials including South Sudanese President Silva Kiir.
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