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SOUTH SUDAN / AIR DROP
STORY: SOUTH SUDAN / WFP UNHCR AIR DROP
TRT: 2:12
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 1 APRIL 2014, 31 MARCH 2014, JUBA, NYAL, SOUTH SUDAN
31 MARCH 2014 JUBA TO NYAL, SOUTH SUDAN
1. Close up, sky from the plane
2. Close up, view of the cockpit
3. Aerial, landscape
4. Close up, WFP bags
1 APRIL 2014, NYAL, UNITY STATE, SOUTH SUDAN
5. Aerial, WFP plane airdropping food
6. Various shots, people waiting at WFP food distribution centre
7. Med shot, UNHCR HC Antonio Guterres and WFP ED Ertharin Cousin visiting distribution site
8.SOUNDBITE (English) Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director, World Food Programme:
“Traditionally we wouldn’t be here because we would have prepositioned food, which would have given us the ability to have a distribution that was much more systematic to support the needs of the most vulnerable in this community. But because of the conflict we are now in a situation where we are airdropping food to get to people, so that they have food that they haven’t had access to for the last several months during the conflict period.”
9. Various shots, Guterres and Cousin meeting with displaced
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, High Commissioner, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees:
“We have already 250,000 refugees that were in exile for 20 years, came back and they are again in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and in Sudan, and if peace does not come soon we risk that they lose hope and we risk this country to see its future entirely compromised."
Close up of a child
Med shot, child carrying WFP highly nutritious food
The heads of the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Refugee agency (UNHCR) today warned that the crisis in South Sudan could endanger millions of lives in the coming months if urgent action is not taken to put an end to the conflict and support the civilians who are struggling to survive.
At the end of a two-day visit to South Sudan, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres and WFP’s Executive Director Ertharin Cousin said everyone – humanitarian agencies, donors and parties to the conflict – has a responsibility to see that civilians affected by the violence are able to receive help.
They expressed concern that a mix of insecurity and other direct impediments to humanitarian access, as well as severe funding shortages for aid agencies, may combine to leave far too many people cut off from assistance as the conflict continues to wreak havoc on lives and livelihoods.
During their trip to South Sudan, they met with people displaced by the conflict who have taken shelter in the remote town of Nyal, in Unity State, where both the local community and an estimated 25,000 IDPs have struggled to access food and other basic necessities. WFP and its partners plan to assist 25,000 conflict affected people in Nyal with food rations to last 15 days.
They also visited with IDPs sheltering at a UN peacekeeping base in Juba in dismal conditions.
The two agency chiefs discussed the crisis with President Salva Kiir and other government officials, and received the President’s commitment to facilitate and support humanitarian assistance to all civilians in need. They also met with donor representatives and other members of the humanitarian community.
On Wednesday, they depart for Ethiopia, where they will meet some of the more than 80,000 refugees who have sought shelter there since the crisis began.
More than 800,000 people have been displaced in South Sudan by the conflict, which began on 15 December 2013. This includes 68,000 people who are sheltering in UN peacekeeping bases. Another 254,000 refugees have crossed into neighbouring countries seeking shelter and food. Additionally, South Sudan was also hosting some 220,000 refugees from Sudan in camps close to conflict areas.
In the more than 100 days since the start of the conflict more than half a million people have received food assistance inside the country, but continued conflict, combined with the onset of the rainy season has made it difficult to reach many people in need. The relief effort has been further hampered by a severe lack of funds.
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