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SOUTH SUDAN / AIRLIFT WRAP
STORY: SOUTH SUDAN / AIRLIFT WRAP
TRT: 2.35
SOURCE: UNMISS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 15 MAY 2012, JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
15 MAY 2012, JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
1. Wide shot, Lise Grande, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan, Vincent Houver Chief of Mission IOM and Mirelle Girard, UNHCR Representative at press conference
4. Cutaway, photographer
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Lise Grande, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan:
“Because this is a large and complex operation and a very expensive one, to do even the minimum necessary, humanitarian partners require 760 million dollars, it is a lot of money. So far this year they have received about 32 percent of what they need, they have a long way to go. We are looking at the airlift, refugee operation and the food operation and those thirty other emergencies that are on the way. It is clear they are very overstretched and we need additional funding to come in so we can keep providing the kind of life-saving assistance that helps the people that need it the most.”
6. Cutaway, UN staff
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Mirelle Girard, UNHCR Representative for South Sudan:
“The concern is the increasing level of malnutrition amongst children arriving and that is why it is important for us to have stepped up the arrival procedures the way we have done to make sure that people are given immediate attention upon arrival.”
8. Cutaway, journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Vincent Houver, Chief of Mission, IOM:
“The ultimate goal as humanitarian stakeholders here is to ensure that the Southern Sudanese in their own country can live in condition of dignity and safety, this is the exact same goal we have in ensuring people can return in dignity and safety which is a challenge at times, it has been a challenge particularly in the past few months as tensions have escalated in boarder areas as we all know. We shall significantly limit the number of options the people to return spontaneously from north to south.”
MAY 15, 2012, JUBA AIRPORT, SOUTH SUDAN
10. Wide shot, returnees descending from plane
12. Med shot, families descending from plane
13. Med shot, getting into IOM buses and UNHCR workers at hand to assist
14. Close up, woman in bus
15. Wide shot, convoy of IOM buses with returnees leaving the airport
MAY 15, 2012, JUBA ARRIVING CENTER, SOUTH SUDAN
16. Wide shot, signpost showing Way Station, people waiting to welcome relatives
17. Wide shot, buses with returnees arriving at Juba Way Station
18. Med shot, mother and child and other returnees walking into reception hall
19. Wide shot, people inside hall
20. Med shot, mothers and babies
21. Close up, baby with mother
22. Med shot, people outside fence looking for relatives
23. Close up, woman expecting a relative
An operation to fly back to their country an estimated 12,000 citizens of South Sudan stranded at a riverside town in neighbouring Sudan has begun, a senior United Nations official said today (15 May), adding that the returnees are being provided with humanitarian assistance on arrival back home.
According to the UN Resident Coordinator in South Sudan, Lise Grande the airlift is coming at the busiest time of the year for humanitarian partners just before the rains.
With refugee populations increasing from the Sudan’s South Kordofan State conflict, humanitarian organisations are also having to scale up on their operations.
Speaking at a joint humanitarian press conference in the South Sudanese capital Juba, Grande said that donors had been generous but that there was an estimated shortfall of close to 500 million dollars for various humanitarian operations.
SOUNDBITE (English), Lise Grande, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan
“Because this is a large and complex operation and very expensive one, to do even the minimum necessary, humanitarian partners requires 760 million dollars, it is a lot of money. So far this year they have received about 32 percent of what they need, they have a long way to go. We are looking at the airlift, refugee operation and the food operation and those thirty other emergencies that are on the way. It is clear they are very over stretched and we need additional funding to come in so we can keep providing the kind of life savings assistance that helps the people that need it the most.”
UNHCR Representative for South Sudan Mirelle Girard said that there was a major concern for malnutrition amongst children arriving into refugee camps mainly along the border areas.
SOUNDBITE: (English) Mirelle Girard, UNHCR Representative for South Sudan
“The concern is the increasing level of malnutrition amongst children arriving and that is why it is important for us to have stepped up the arrival procedures the way we have done to make sure that people are given immediate attention upon arrival.”
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in South Sudan have led with the airlifts that will transport as many as 1000 people on a daily basis for the next two weeks.
Vincent Houver, the IOM chief in South Sudan said the main task was to ensure that Southern Sudanese people live with dignity and safety.
SOUNDBITE (English) Vincent Houver, Chief of Mission- IOM
“The ultimate goal as humanitarian stake holders here is to ensure that the Southern Sudanese in their own country can live in condition of dignity and safety, this is the exact same goal we have in ensuring people can return in dignity and safety which is a challenge at times, it has been a challenge particularly in the past few months as tensions have escalated in boarder areas as we all know. We shall significantly limit the number of options the people to return spontaneously from north to south.”
The first two chartered flights arrived in Juba from Khartoum on yesterday (14 May). These flights included women, families with young children, elderly and sick people.
On touch-down for the first time in South Sudan the returnees were received at Juba airport by South Sudanese officials before being transferred in IOM buses to a transit complex run by the UNHCR on the outskirts of Juba.
Following South Sudan’s independence last year, thousands of South Sudanese remained stranded in Sudan – living in difficult conditions through the summer and winter months, while others managed to travel by barge or road to the new nation.
The humanitarian airlift operation from Kosti, a river port on the White Nile, via Khartoum will continue for two weeks. It is being supported by the Government of South Sudan and other South Sudan based humanitarian.
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