Humanitarian access has remained a challenge in delivering assistance to the displaced people, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan has said.

The mission says the situation improved in March in former Upper Nile but people were not allowed to move as they wanted.

“In a month, we could see a big progress as you know in March the humanitarians were allowed to deliver humanitarian assistance on the Nile river, around Malakal,” said Ellen Magrethe Loej, head of the mission and the special representative of the UN Secretary-General.

“But unfortunately, civilians had not yet been allowed freely to move across the river from Malakal and to the Bahr Sherik area.”

Ms Ellen was speaking at a weekly press conference in Juba this afternoon.