Illegal roadblocks manned by men in uniform are common across South Sudan. (-)

The UN humanitarian agency reports incidents impeding humanitarian access in South Sudan – including a forced boarding and diversion of a plane delivering relief items, and a string of attacks and robberies targeting aid workers in November 2024.

There were 35 incidents hindering delivery of life-saving humanitarian supplies, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) said in its latest Humanitarian Snapshot.

It stated that aid operations continued to face significant challenges due to escalating violence, threats against personnel and assets, bureaucratic impediments, and logistical constraints.

The country remains one of the world’s most perilous environments for aid workers in 2024 despite UN agencies warning of an alarming humanitarian crisis where more than half the population will go hungry next year.

OCHA said attacks and robberies targeting humanitarian personnel and convoys increased in Central Equatoria and Unity states. It said four vehicles belonging to humanitarian organizations attacked by armed criminals in Juba, with cash stolen at gunpoint.

Meanwhile, an aid convoy was ambushed along Bentiu-Yida Road, resulting in a gunshot injury to one truck driver, the agency said.

It added that in Pochalla of Greater Pibor Administrative Area, armed personnel forcibly boarded a humanitarian-chartered aircraft and directed it back to Juba, interrupting its scheduled flight to Lankien, Nyirol County.

In Lakes State, two INGO health workers were arrested and detained for one week, causing disruption to the provision of health services, it said, adding that a similar incident occurred in Western Bahr El Ghazal, where authorities detained staff contracted by an international aid group to construct schools, delaying the project implementation.

“Increasing forms of bureaucratic access impediments, including interference by local authorities in recruitment processes, persisted in Ayod and Fangak (Jonglei State) as well as Maiwut, Maban, and Renk (Upper Nile State),” it stated.

Further, OCHA revealed that flooding disrupted critical supply routes between Lakes, Western Bahr El Ghazal, and Warrap, adding several supply routes within Jonglei, Upper Nile, and the GPAA remain impassable.

The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) shows more than 85 per cent of returnees fleeing Sudan will be acutely food insecure through the next lean season, starting April 2025.

UN’s food agencies said the refugees and returnees will make up almost half of those facing catastrophic hunger, as they struggle to rebuild their lives amidst an unprecedented economic crisis and severe flooding.