The funding enables the humanitarian community to respond to humanitarian needs and, at the same time, to preposition aid before the start of the rainy season. Last year, timely supply of life-saving aid to people in urgent need proved difficult as up to 60 per cent of the country became inaccessible due to seasonal flooding and poor roads.

(New York / Juba, South Sudan, 3 February 2012): On the third day of a four-day visit to South Sudan, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC), Valerie Amos, met with representatives from the Government, the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS), and donor countries in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, to discuss the complex humanitarian challenges facing the world’s youngest nation.

This is my first visit to South Sudan since the historic independence celebration just over six months ago.

I have just returned from Jonglei State, where I was able to see the situation on the ground in Walgak and Pibor. I was pleased to meet Governor Kuol Manyang, local officials, aid workers, and some of the more than 140,000 people who have been affected by the cycle of violence and retaliation. It is a terrible situation – people have lost loved ones, their possessions, and their livelihoods.

(New York, 25 January 2012): The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC), Valerie Amos, today announced the allocation of some US$104 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to bolster humanitarian operations in 13 neglected humanitarian emergencies around the world: Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Djibouti, Eritrea, Haiti, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Syria.