Marie-Helene Verney, acting humanitarian coordinator of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for South Sudan, said Monday’s attack took place when a team of aid workers were on a field trip to respond to a suspected measles outbreak in the Greater Pibor Administrative Area. One of the team members was killed after leaving for a community visit, Xinhua reported.
“I convey my deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of this colleague, a nutrition officer who was going the extra mile so that the children of Boma, Greater Pibor Administrative Area, live to see the age of five, and who was killed in the line of duty. This deplorable act of violence is not unacceptable,” Verney said in a statement in Juba, the capital of South Sudan. “I am appalled by the continued violence targeting humanitarians and their assets, access constraints, bureaucratic impediments, the impact of ongoing violence and widespread criminality, and hamper the work of humanitarian actors across the country.”
She also appealed to armed actors to stop the violence and harassment of humanitarian actors or be prepared to see them leave.
RHM/PR