South Sudan

During its informal consultations on 24 October 2018, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2206 (2015) concerning South Sudan was briefed by Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict.  Ms. Patten, whose predecessor last briefed the Committee in March 2017, noted inter alia that sexual violence remained rampant in South Sudan and was used as part of a strategy to degrade, shame and humiliate both the victims and communities, often along ethnic and/or political lines.

With a new roadmap for peace in South Sudan facing persistent challenges, the integral involvement of women is vital, along with international support to ensure that the country’s leaders fulfil their responsibilities, the head of United Nations peacekeeping told the Security Council today.

The Security Council today decided to extend until 15 May 2019 the mandate of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) ‑ operating in an oil-rich contested area on the border of Sudan and South Sudan ‑ while simultaneously reducing the Mission’s military troops and increasing its police presence.

A new United Nations report has documented the immense suffering of civilians in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria region, where 900 people were abducted and 24,000 forced to flee their homes during a surge in violence between April and August of this year.

Marking International Day of Rural Women, the Secretary-General said rural women and girls are crucial in building a prosperous, equitable and peaceful future.  He called on countries to take action to ensure that women and girls fully enjoy their human rights, including the rights of land and security of land tenure.

The Security Council today decided to extend, until 15 April 2019, modifications to the mandate of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), while also stressing that the extension will be the final one unless the parties meet specific benchmarks.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) reports that it has managed, for the first time since civil war broke out in South Sudan almost five years ago, to send a food-assistance boat convoy up the Sobat River, a tributary of the White Nile in the Upper Nile region, with enough food to sustain 40,000 people for one month.

One week after the earthquake and tsunami that hit Central Sulawesi in Indonesia, the humanitarian country team has launched a $50 million response plan.  The United Nations resident coordinator there said the plan will provide immediate relief items, and the logistical support needed to provide aid to those in need.

Civilians in Darfur continued to suffer the effects of a lack of progress in the peace process there, the Chair of the Committee that oversees sanctions on those impeding peace in the Sudanese region told the Security Council this afternoon.

The World Health Organization today launched its first global guidelines on sanitation and health, warning that the world will not achieve universal sanitation coverage by 2030 without comprehensive policy shifts and more investment.