South Sudan: U.N. Dismayed by Decline

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/03/world/africa/south-sudan-un-dismayed-by-decline.html

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United Nations officials expressed alarm Tuesday over a further deterioration in South Sudan, where they said recent heavy fighting had displaced more than 100,000 people and blocked aid deliveries to 650,000. Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency in Geneva, told reporters that at least 60,000 South Sudanese had fled since January, mostly to Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda, bringing the total number of refugees to 555,000 since December 2013, when the conflict erupted. Mr. Edwards said that 1.5 million people had been displaced within the country and that a third of the population lacked sufficient food. The news came a day after United Nations officials said South Sudan’s government had decided to expel the organization’s aid coordinator there, Toby Lanzer, who has criticized the South Sudanese armed forces for their role in the fighting. He was nearing the end of his tenure anyway, but Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the expulsion.