Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoUnifeed
UN / SOUTH SUDAN SHEARER
STORY: UN / SOUTH SUDAN SHEARER
TRT: 02:17
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 26 APRIL 2017, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, aerial view of United Nations Headquarters
26 APRIL 2017, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, dais
3. Wide shot, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) David Shearer, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in South Sudan:
“Riek Machar has been visited by both President Mogae and the Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan. The feeling very much within the region is that his role in terms of bringing him back wouldn’t necessarily be positive at this stage. So, that’s the decision of the regional governments and South Africa. But I think the most important thing is, and I made this point both to everybody including President Kiir, is that the constituency that he represents must be part of any peace process and any process that moves forward.”
5. Med shot, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) David Shearer, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in South Sudan:
“In South Sudan the conflict has widened rather than contracted over the past few weeks. The famine in South Sudan, unlike that of other countries in the region is a function of the conflict. When people in a place like South Sudan and a semi-subsistence society lose their access to their means of livelihood, they become very vulnerable.”
7. Med shot, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) David Shearer, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in South Sudan:
“We are looking in the order of 60,000 people per month in the first three months of this year leaving the country. So, at the current rate, by the end of this year if it continues as it is, before the end of this year we’ll have more than 2 million people who will be refugees.”
9. Med shot, dais
10. SOUNDBITE (English) David Shearer, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in South Sudan:
“Genocide doesn’t have to be an event, it can be a process. And so, what we are doing is very, very closely monitoring what’s happening on the ground. There are certainly atrocities that are being committed that have an ethnic flavour to them, but not at the level where you would say that one particular group is being specifically sort out in an organized and systematic way.”
11. Wide shot, end of presser
The new Head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) today (26 Apr) told journalists in New York that a return of opposition leader Riek Machar to South Sudan “wouldn’t necessarily be positive at this stage.”
David Shearer, who is also the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in South Sudan, said that this has been the decision of the regional governments and South Africa.
Shearer said “the most important thing is, and I made this point both to everybody including (South Sudan’s) President (Salva) Kiir, is that the constituency that he represents must be part of any peace process and any process that moves forward.”
Machar belongs to the Nuer ethnic group and is the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO).
Shearer, who briefed the Security Council on Tuesday, said the conflict in South Sudan “has widened rather than contracted over the past few weeks.”
The famine currently affecting the country, he said, “unlike that of other countries in the region is a function of the conflict.”
He added that “when people in a place like South Sudan and a semi-subsistence society lose their access to their means of livelihood, they become very vulnerable.”
The Special Representative reported that “60,000 people per month in the first three months of this year” have left the country. At the current rate, he added, “before the end of this year we’ll have more than 2 million people who will be refugees.”
Speaking on the ethnic dimension of the conflict, Shearer said “we are doing is very, very closely monitoring what’s happening on the ground. There are certainly atrocities that are being committed that have an ethnic flavour to them, but not at the level where you would say that one particular group is being specifically sort out in an organized and systematic way.”
In November last year, the Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, said there was a strong risk of violence escalating along ethnic lines with the potential for genocide in South Sudan.
Download
There is no media available to download.
