JUBA: Aid agencies working in South Sudan, one of the poorest countries in the world, are under regular threat from members of the security services who beat or arrest them or commandeer their equipment, the United Nations said yesterday.
South Sudan has been struggling to reform its bloated security services since it split from Sudan in 2011 after a long civil war that has left it awash with weapons.
Human rights groups regularly accuse South Sudan’s army, an assortment of poorly-trained former guerrilla fighters known as the SPLA, of abuses against civilians.
Vincent Lelei, country head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the number of incidents hampering the work of aid agencies had jumped almost 50 percent last year. REUTERS
