UN / SOUTH SUDAN

The special representative for South Sudan Ellen Margrethe Løj said that the deterioration of the economy and the increasingly fragmented conflict - often with ethnic undertones - “have placed the country on a potential downward slide towards greater divisiveness and risk of a full-scale civil conflict that could render national cohesion almost impossible to achieve.” UNIFEED / FILE

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:24
• Production Date: 17 November 2016
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: ELLEN MARGRETHE LØJ; ADAMA DIENG; SAMANTHA POWER
• Corporate Name: SECURITY COUNCIL; UNITED NATIONS MISSION IN SOUTH SUDAN – UNMISS
• Subject Topical: CONFLICT SITUATION; GENOCIDE PREVENTION
• Geographic Subject: SOUTH SUDAN
• MAMS Id: 1777424
• Parent Id: 1777424
• Alternate Title: unifeed161117a

Description

STORY: UN / SOUTH SUDAN
TRT: 02.24
SOURCE: UNIFEED / UNMISS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 17 NOVEMBER 2016, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

Shotlist

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters

17 NOVEMBER 2016, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Ellen Margrethe Løj, Special Representative of the
Secretary-General:
“The deterioration of the economy and the increasingly fragmented conflict - often with ethnic undertones – that we are seeing, have placed the country on a potential downward slide towards greater divisiveness and risk of a full-scale civil conflict that could render national cohesion almost impossible to achieve.”
4. Med shot, delegates
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ellen Margrethe Løj, Special Representative of the
Secretary-General:
“The guns simply have to be silenced if the suffering of the people is not going to become even more dire.”
6. Med shot, delegates
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Adama Dieng, Under-Secretary-General, Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide:
“I saw all the signs that ethnic hatred and targeting of civilians could evolve into genocide if something is not done now to stop it. I urge the Security Council and member states of the region to be united and to take action.”
8. Med shot, delegates
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations:
“South Sudan is a nation at a precipice. As Mr Diang said upon completing his visit to the country last week, there is ‘a strong risk of violence escalating along ethnic lines with the potential for genocide.’ When the UN’s designated special adviser for the prevention of genocide reaches the conclusion that genocide could be imminent, it should serve as a wake-up call for us all.”
10. Wide shot, Security Council

8 NOVEMBER 2017, JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN

11. Wide shot, peacekeepers at Protection of Civilians (PoC) site
12. Wide shot, Adama Dieng at PoC site
13. Med shot, interior of meeting area with participants seated
14. Med shot, Dieng and official
15. Close up, Dieng
16. Wide shot, location where closed meeting is going on
17. Various shots, participants during meeting
18. Wide shot, team leaving meeting area

Storyline

The United Nations top official in South Sudan Ellen Margrethe Løj today (17 Nov) told the Security Council that the deterioration of the economy and the increasingly fragmented conflict “have placed the country on a potential downward slide towards greater divisiveness and risk of a full-scale civil conflict that could render national cohesion almost impossible to achieve.”

Løj, who is the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in South Sudan, told Council members in New York that “the guns simply have to be silenced if the suffering of the people is not going to become even more dire.”

The Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, who visited South Sudan last week said “I saw all the signs that ethnic hatred and targeting of civilians could evolve into genocide if something is not done now to stop it. I urge the Security Council and member states of the region to be united and to take action.”

United States Ambassador Samantha Power, during her intervention said “South Sudan is a nation at a precipice” and pointed out that “when the UN’s designated special adviser for the prevention of genocide reaches the conclusion that genocide could be imminent, it should serve as a wake-up call for us all.”

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011. But war broke out in 2013 between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those of former Vice-President Riek Machar. The political rivals signed a peace agreement in August 2015 to formally end their differences. But in early July this year, close to the fifth anniversary of the country’s independence, the world’s youngest nation was plunged into fresh violence due to clashes between the two rival forces.